^^.^V  OF  PR„^ 


BV  4315  .B4 

Bennett,  Robinson  Potter 

Dunn,  1869- 
What  I  tell  my  junior 

con  ere  2a  t  ijon 


3fttnior  Congregation 


A  Series  of  Object  Sermons  Preached  to  the  Junior 

Congregation  of  Summit  Presbyterian  Church, 

Germantown,   Pa.,  by   the  Pastor 

ROBINSON  P.  D.  BENNETT,  M.A. 

For  several  years  State  Secretary  of  Junior  Christian  Endeavor 

in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  and  for  many  years  a 

*'  Children's  Preacher  " 

Wiit^  an  3Jntroi»uction  6p 


ALEXANDER  HENRY,  D.  D. 

Secretary  of  The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath- 
School  Work 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  WESTMINSTER   PRESS 

1913 


Copyright,  1912,  by  the  Trustees  of 

The  Presbyterian  Board  of  PubUcation  and 

Sabbath-School  Work 


PREFACE 


This  little  manual  of  methods  and  material  for 
work  with  children  in  the  services  of  the  church,  is 
the  result  of  several  years  of  actual  experience 
with  just  such  conditions  as  are  mentioned  herein, 
and  the  sermons  are  the  result  of  an  attempt  to 
meet  the  child's  needs  in  the  morning  service  of 
the  church.  The  plans  advocated  have  been  tried 
and  approved,  either  by  the  author  or  by  an 
expert  in  this  form  of  work.  For  many  years 
these  ideas  relative  to  the  child  at  church  have 
been  forming  themselves  in  the  author's  mind  and 
heart,  as  he  has  dealt  with  children  in  Christian 
Endeavor  work,  Sunday  school,  and  church 
services.  The  appended  sermonettes  are  for  the 
most  part  original,  and  are  an  attempt  to  meet 
the  needs  of  pastors  who  have  either  no  time  or 
no  aptitude  for  such  sermonic  composition. 

As  a  further  reason  for  the  publication  of  this 
little  book  let  me  say,  that  in  the  perusal  of  many 
books  of  sermons  adapted  to  children,  I  find  that 
there  are  few  published  upon  this  side  of  the  water. 
It  is  with  a  desire  to  add  to  the  American  literature 

3 


PREFACE 

of  the  "Children's  Church,"  and  with  a  still  greater 
desire  to  see  the  inauguration  of  a  "Children's 
Church"  in  every  Congregation  of  Christians,  that 
I  commit  this  work  to  the  hands  of  my  brethren 
in  the  ministry. 

R.  P.  D.  B. 

Germantown,  Pa.,  March,  191 2. 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Preface 3 

Introduction  by  Alexander  Henry,  D.D 7 

The  Motive 9 

The  Mission 19 

The  Method 25 

The  Material  or  the  Message 28 

The  Railroad  Frog 29 

Smoothing  Out  the  Bumps 34 

The  Funnel,  the  Sifter  and  the  Sponge 37 

Bolts  and  Hinges 41 

The  Bread  of  Life 44 

Lifters  and  Leaners 47 

Insulated  Christians 50 

The  Girl  on  the  Penny 53 

Not  so  Funny  Then 57 

Phcebe 61 

Palms  or  Garments? 64 

The  Crying  Stones 68 

How  Jesus  Came  Down  the  Stairs 71 

How  TO  See  the  Risen  Jesus 74 

Jesus,  the  Gardener 78 

"Getting  onto  His  Curves." 86 

Lessons  of  the  Target 90 

Three  Flowers  of  Freedom 93 

Invisible  Enemies 97 

5 


CONTENTS 

Page 

How  TO  Tell  Poisons loo 

Bubble  Honors 104 

The  Three  Sieves 107 

The  Lion,  the  Bear  and  the  Serpent 109 

Weighing  Hearts 112 

The  Dangerous  Shadow 115 

Back  in  Harness 118 

"Keyed  up." 122 

Picking  Up  the  Buoys 126 

Are  You  a  Hobab? 130 

Nature's  Wreath  Remains 135 

Canned  Good(s) 138 

The  Lesson  of  the  Sundial 141 

Two  TO  One 145 

Salt 149 

The  Changed  Cups 152 

Christ's  Sentinel 155 

What  Jesus  Sees  in  Us i59 

The  Empty  Seats 163 

Who's  Afraid? 166 

Unappreciated  Christmas  Gifts 171 


INTRODUCTION 


Securing  the  attendance  of  the  children  at  the 
church  services  is  a  subject  that  is  frequently  dis- 
cussed nowadays. 

When  we  had  the  old  "family  pew,"  and  the 
family  occupying  it  every  Sunday  morning,  there 
was  no  question  of  the  presence  of  the  children. 
With  the  changing  conditions  of  church  life  and 
church  services,  however,  the  children  have  become 
more  conspicuous  by  their  absence  than  by  their 
attendance. 

Various  plans  have  been  proposed  for  bringing 
the  boys  and  girls  to  the  preaching  services.  One 
of  these  plans  is  known  as  "The  Junior  Congre- 
gation." The  youth  of  the  congregation,  under 
the  ages  of  ten  or  twelve  years,  are  formed  into  a 
congregation  that  is  expected  to  attend  the  Sunday 
morning  service. 

After  the  offering  has  been  made,  the  pastor 
preaches  a  brief  sermon  to  the  boys  and  girls,  who 
are  seated,  so  far  as  possible,  in  the  front  pews. 
Upon  the  conclusion  of  this  sermon,  a  hymn  is 
sung;  and  during  the  singing  any  of  the  children 

7 


INTRODUCTION 

who  desire  to  leave  the  church,  or  to  sit  with  their 
parents,  are  at  liberty  to  do  so. 

This  plan  has  been  in  operation  several  years  in 
Summit  Presbyterian  Church,  German  town.  Pa. 
The  sermons  found  in  this  volume  were  preached  to 
the  children  at  these  services.  It  was  my  privilege 
to  hear  a  number  of  them,  and  I  can  bear  testimony 
to  the  fact  that  they  were  of  interest  to  the  adults 
as  well  as  to  the  children.  On  more  than  one 
occasion  it  seemed  to  me  that  if  the  lessons  con- 
tained in  these  children's  sermons  were  just  the 
lessons  the  fathers  and  mothers  needed  to  learn. 

Pastors  who  are  preaching  to  the  children  will 
find  this  book  suggestive  and  helpful.  It  would 
be  a  good  plan  for  parents  to  get  it  and  read  a 
chapter  to  their  children  on  Sunday  afternoon. 

Alexander  Henry. 


THE  MOTIVE 

The  Junior  Congregation  is  not  a  plan  upon 
paper.  Its  substance  is  not  akin  to  the  roseate 
hues  of  an  evanescent  dawn.  It  is  not  the  child 
of  a  preacher's  hoHday  dreams.  It  is  the  real 
thing.  It  has  been  put  to  the  test  of  time,  of 
criticism,  of  monotonous  methods  and  poor  preach- 
ing and  has  come  out  pure  gold.  It  meets  a  need. 
It  gets  the  child.    It  saves  the  church. 

The  Junior  Congregation  is  not  a  Christian  En- 
deavor Society.  It  is  the  church  of  Christ  in 
junior  form.  It  is  the  church  of  Christ  in  the  lives 
of  boys  and  girls.  Its  object  is  not  to  help  the 
church,  its  object  is  to  be  the  church.  It  is  an 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  church  to  realize  in 
the  lives  of  the  boys  and  girls  the  fact  of  their 
union  with  the  visible  church  in  baptism.  It  is 
not  seeking  to  train  children  to  work  in  the  church 
when  they  are  grown,  but  to  work  in  the  church 
now. 

Its  chief  purpose  is  to  draw  the  minds  of  the 
children  to  the  thought  that  above  and  beyond  all 
outside  associations  and  societies,  the  chief  organ 
of  the  Saviour  for  the  propagation  of  his  kingdom 
in  the  world  is  the  church. 

The  name  of  this  new  organization  in  the  his- 
tory of  Christian  progress  which  is  meeting  the 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

real  need  in  the  church  life  of  to-day,  came  from 
the  First  Reformed  Church  of  Brooklyn,  being 
given  by  the  pastor.  Rev.  J.  M.  Farrar,  D.D., 
whose  great  heart  and  great  physique  as  well  have 
ever  been  given  to  the  children  of  his  church. 

In  that  church  for  many  years  there  has  been 
the  Organized  Junior  Congregation,  the  first  to  be 
so  organized  in  this  country,  or  for  all  the  author 
knows  in  any  other. 

There  is  a  powerful  motive  behind  this  partic- 
ular branch  of  church  activity.  First. — There  is 
the  poor  training  manifested  in  the  members  of 
the  church  to-day.  What  pastor  is  not  burdened 
with  the  consciousness  of  insufficiency  in  the  great 
majority  of  his  church  members  ?  And  in  seeking 
the  reason  for  this  deficiency  may  we  not  lawfully 
say  that  it  is  largely  due,  among  other  things,  to 
the  lateness  of  the  hour  of  life  at  which  they  be- 
gan to  realize  their  responsibilities  to  the  real 
work  of  the  church;  and  to  the  want  of  knowl- 
edge as  to  the  methods  employed  in  the  various 
branches  of  the  work  of  the  church  ? 

I  must  confess  that  it  was  some  time  after  my 
union  with  the  church  that  I  came  to  know  the 
workings  of  those  great  boards  of  the  church, 
through  whose  instrumentality  the  real  work  of 
the  church  is  done.  We  begin  in  the  primary 
schools  of  our  land  to-day  to  teach  the  babes  the 
methods  of  our  civil  government.  Then  why 
should  we  tarry  till  these  impressible  years  are 
10 


THE  MOTIVE 

gone  to  tell  the  child  the  methods  of  his  Master's 
kingdom,  and  to  accustom  him  to  the  weekly 
routine  of  church  going  and  church  working? 

Second. — There  is  a  reason  in  the  lack  of  a  proper 
valuation  placed  by  the  present  generation  upon 
the  office  of  the  Christian  church.  "Can't  I  be  a 
Christian  without  joining  the  church?  "  How  many 
times  in  a  month  do  we  pastors  get  heartsick  over 
the  sentiment  embodied  in  these  words  ?  And  do 
we  not  know  the  sorrow  of  having  a  large  meeting 
of  Christian  Endeavorers  file  out  from  the  lecture 
room  and  go  home  while  the  empty  seats  at  the 
after  evening  service  of  the  church  call  to  them 
in  vain  ?  It  is  because  there  are  so  many  excel- 
lent organizations  that  are  paralleling  the  life 
and  work  of  the  church,  that  the  Junior  Congre- 
gation has  become  a  necessity.  Is  it  not  true 
that  doing  the  work  of  these  organizations,  which 
are  of  course  a  part  of  the  church  life,  the  young 
people  feel  it  entirely  unnecessary  to  enter  into  the 
real  fellowship  of  the  church? 

The  sacraments  are  not  valued  as  they  once 
were.  And  we  often  have  the  saddening  spectacle 
of  pastors  stuffing  the  mail  boxes  with  pleading 
circular  letters,  almost  beseeching  the  Christians 
to  come  to  the  table  of  their  Lord. 

And  when  it  comes  to  the  matter  of  benevolences, 
it  is  not  at  all  a  difficult  matter  to  conceal  from  our 
left  hand  what  our  right  hand  doeth.  When  out 
of  a  membership  of  three  hundred  about  fifty  per 

11 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

cent  contribute  regularly  to  the  church  support; 
and  when  out  of  a  like  membership  only  forty 
units  contribute  to  the  boards  of  the  church  with 
any  regularity  or  system,  is  there  not  motive 
enough  for  the  careful  and  systematic  indoctri- 
nation of  the  children  of  the  church  in  the  matter 
of  their  stewardship  to  God  ? 

The  whole  attitude  of  men  and  women  to  the 
church  as  a  means  of  grace  is  that  of  growing 
indifference.  There  are  few  ''Sons  of  the  Taber- 
nacle" to-day  as  compared  with  the  days  of  your 
boyhood.  The  attractive  power  of  the  church  as 
a  center  toward  which  Christians  naturally  gravi- 
tate is  so  much  less  in  these  days  of  numerous 
societies  and  cults  as  to  make  the  cultivation  of 
church  life  a  feature  in  the  religious  training  of 
our  boys  and  girls.  To  be  able  to  present  to  the 
coming  generation  a  company  of  young  men  and 
women  who  can  honestly  say  "I  must  be  in  my 
Father's  house  and  about  my  Father's  business" 
and  who  would  rather  be  doorkeepers  in  the  church 
of  God  than  Past  Grand  Exalted  Rulers  of  the 
finest  organization  of  men  ever  got  together, 
will  be  a  service  that  will  amply  repay  all  the 
energy  the  pastors  of  the  present-day  church 
can  expend.  There  is  a  body  of  men  and  women 
in  our  churches  who  have  been  aptly  dubbed 
*'The  Outer  Church."  They  are  the  church  that 
surrounds  the  true  church.  They  are  attendants 
at  her  services,  they  are  contributors  to  her  needs, 
12 


THE  MOTIVE 

they  are  interested  in  her  temporal  progress.  But 
there  the  interest  stops.  They  care  not  for  her 
sacraments.  They  will  not  join  the  inner  circle 
of  her  life.  They  will  not  share  her  responsibil- 
ities. 

A  member  of  my  congregation  who  had  run  the 
gamut  of  churches  from  Friends*  Meeting  to  High 
Church  Episcopacy,  when  asked  why  he  did  not 
unite  with  the  church  he  was  now  attending, 
replied,  "I  have  been  to  all  of  them,  can  agree 
with  none  of  them,  and  so  I  now  sit  on  the  fence 
and  watch  them  all  pass  by."  Bear  witness  with 
me,  angels  of  the  churches,  that  you  deal  with 
many  such. 

Sitting  outside  your  church  proper  you  know 
you  have  a  miserable  lot  of  Noah's  carpenters, 
who  help  to  drive  the  financial  nails  to  hold  your 
work  together,  but  who,  like  Noah's  carpenters, 
will  not  come  into  the  ark  after  they  have  helped 
to  build  it. 

It  is  in  the  field  of  this  outer  church  that  I  can 
glean  sufficient  motive  for  the  establishment  of  a 
Junior  Congregation,  which  shall  teach  the  children 
of  our  churches  that  there  is  more  in  our  church 
duties,  than  *' sitting  on  the  fence"  and  seeing 
the  thing  go  round.  It  is  the  unfortunate  lack  of 
personal  responsibility  to  all  the  services  and 
sacraments  of  the  church,  on  the  part  of  the 
members  of  it  that  is  responsible  for  what  Dr.  W. 
J.  Dawson  calls  "The  Arrest  of  Christianity." 

13 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

Third.— Then  there  is  the  object  lesson  to  be 
seen  in  many  churches  of  the  conspicuousness  of 
the  children  emphasized  by  their  absence.  "Are 
the  children  of  professing  Christians, "  asks  Dr.  J. 
M.  Farrar,"  familiar  with  any  door  of  the  church 
save  the  one  into  the  Sunday-school  room?" 
For  every  five  adults  there  should  be  at  least  one 
child  in  the  church.  But  in  how  many  churches 
is  this  ratio  maintained? 

So  greatly  has  their  absence  from  the  services 
of  the  church  become  a  matter  of  course,  that  it 
is  not  uncommon  to  hear  it  said  of  a  church  that 
has  a  large  attendance  of  the  boys  and  girls — 
"Why,  how  many  children  you  have  in  your 
congregation  !" 

There  is  a  fearful  fallacy  deep-rooted  in  the  minds 
of  many  parents,  that  a  child  should  never  be  urged 
to  go  to  church,  for  fear  that  in  after  years  he  may 
acquire  a  distaste  for  church  worship. 

This  makes  the  pastor's  problem  a  harder  one 
and  his  responsibility  more  keen.  He  must 
attract  where  parents  refuse  to  compel. 

Here  then  is  another  reason  for  the  Junior  Con- 
gregation. "Back  to  the  church"  must  be  the 
cry  for  children's  work  in  these  days,  and  the 
Junior  Congregation  brings  the  children  back. 

Fourth. — There  is  the  incentive  brought  by 
the  hopefulness  of  childhood.  Bishop  Brooks 
used  to  say  "  He  who  helps  a  child,  helps 
humanity  with  a  distinctness  and  an  immediate- 

14 


THE  MOTIVE 

ness  that  no  other  help  given  at  any  other  time 
can  supply." 

There  is  no  age  so  rich  in  treasures  to  the  future 
of  Christ's  kingdom  as  that  of  childhood.  And  this 
is  the  children's  age.  The  norm  of  human  life 
in  the  olden  days  used  to  be  the  man.  To-day  the 
norm  of  life  is  the  child.  In  no  age  has  it  been  so 
true  that  **  the  child  is  father  of  the  man." 

The  sad  fact,  however,  is  that  while  the  world 
of  science  and  education  has  realized  this,  the 
church  of  Christ  has  not,  except  perhaps  in  the 
realm  of  the  Sunday  school. 

The  church  is  following  rather  than  leading  in 
the  great  work  of  the  age  for  children. 

There  are  to-day  children's  playgrounds  for 
which,  as  in  Philadelphia  recently,  a  whole  city  is 
laid  under  tribute.  There  are  children's  libraries 
in  connection  with  every  city  library  of  any  size 
in  this  country.  There  are  even,  as  in  one  or  two 
cities,  children's  theaters,  where  strictly  juvenile 
plays  are  put  upon  the  boards.  But  it  is  only  with- 
in the  last  few  years  that  we  have  had  a  chil- 
dren's church. 

The  plea  has  been  in  many  cases  that  we  have 
no  room  for  them.  It  has  for  ages  been  the  cry 
of  society.  There  was  no  room  for  the  little  new- 
comer in  the  inn  at  Bethlehem.  At  a  summer  hotel 
a  little  fellow  was  ordered  off  the  piazza  with  the 
remark  that  "this  piazza  is  for  grown  people." 
The  little  fellow  looked  longingly  at  the  broad 

15 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

veranda  with  its  inviting  coolness  and  smoothness 
and  said  wistfully,  "But  hasn't  it  got  any  little 
boy  end?" 

It  is  a  sad  state  of  affairs  when  a  church  has  no 
"Httle  boy  end,"  or  corner. 

Better  knock  out  a  partition  or  two  and  make 
room  for  the  hopefuls.  Dr.  Stephen  H.  Tyng  of 
St.  George's  Church,  New  York  City,  once  said, 
"When  a  choice  must  be  made  between  the  adult 
and  the  child,  I  make  it  in  favor  of  the  child." 

For  the  child  is  the  church  of  the  future.  The 
general  secretary  of  the  Industrial  Christian 
Alliance  of  New  York  writes:  "From  my  point 
of  view,  engaged  in  rescue  work,  I  believe  the 
preventive  work  of  a  Junior  Congregation,  in 
efficiently  training  the  children  in  the  development 
of  character  will  materially  reduce  the  number  of 
men  in  such  institutions  as  ours.  I  would  like 
to  know  how  the  church  may  be  made  to  under- 
stand this." 

The  hopefulness  of  the  child  as  a  candidate  for 
membership  in  the  church  of  Christ  ought  to  stim- 
ulate every  pastor  to  give  more  time  to  the 
training  of  the  children  along  the  line  of  Christian 
duty  and  church  work.  For  we  know  that^  the 
little  ones  slip  into  the  fellowship  of  the  church 
most  naturally  and  simply  when  they  are  drawn 
toward  it  by  wise  and  loving  methods.  They 
come  to  realize  discipleship  so  easily  that  he  has 
lost  the  golden  moment  who  neglects  gently  to 

16 


THE  MOTIVE 

urge  them  to  it.  It  Is  quite  possible  as  we  know 
from  actual  experience  to  have  the  little  ones  come 
to  the  pastor  and  eagerly  ask,  **  When  can  I  join 
the  church  ?" 

Fellowship  in  the  church  as  a  rule  is  never 
brought  before  the  child  mind  with  any  degree 
of  definiteness.  It  is  a  matter  that  is  shunted 
off  by  parent  and  teacher  to  that  vague  and  unreal 
day  "when  you  get  old  enough.'*  The  child  heart 
is  a  reverent  heart,  by  nature,  and  if  irreverence 
be  the  bane  of  modern  church  worship,  then  where 
would  it  be  better  to  begin  the  training  in  that 
quality  which  is  so  sadly  lacking,  than  in  the  Junior 
Congregation?  The  hopefulness  of  the  child  as 
an  instrument  in  soul-saving  is  not  recognized  by 
the  church  as  it  should  be. 

One  child  church  member  conscientiously  living 
out  its  Christian  life  in  a  home  will  often  be  worth 
a  hundred  sermons  and  innumerable  pastoral  visits. 
There  are  many  avenues  to  the  human  heart, 
but  often  all  are  closed  save  those  through  which 
a  little  child  can  find  its  way.  And  those  who 
resist  the  teaching  of  logical  sermons  have  been  led 
to  Christ  by  the  influence  of  some  child  Christian. 

E.  P.  Hammond,  and  other  workers  with  the 
child  heart,  have  many  touching  tales  to  tell  of  the 
power  of  a  Christian  child.     The  following  is  one: 

One  Sabbath  evening  the  father  of  two  little  girls 
who  had  united  with  the  church,  had  placed  one  of 
them  upon  each  knee,  to  ask  them  what  they  had 

17 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

heard  at  church  that  morning.  He  was  not  a  pro- 
fessing Christian.  Looking  full  into  the  father's 
face,  the  elder  said,  "Jesus  must  have  loved  us 
very  much  to  do  that;  don't  you  love  him  for  it, 
father?"  They  then  went  on  to  tell  of  the  trials 
and  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  she  asked  again  the 
question — "Don't  you  love  him  for  that,  father?" 
And  when  they  had  spoken  of  the  death  on  the 
cross,  the  little  one  asked  for  a  third  time,  "Now 
don't  you  love  him,  father?" 

The  father  had  to  put  the  children  down  and  go 
out  of  the  room  to  hide  his  emotions.  He  after- 
wards confessed  that  he  felt  worse  under  the  artless 
questioning  of  the  little  ones  than  under  any  sermon 
he  ever  had  heard.  He  afterwards  joined  the 
church. 

The  hopefulness  of  children  as  church  members 
lies,  too,  in  their  simple  and  unequivocal  faith.  Did 
you  ever  make  the  experiment  of  going  down  the 
aisle  of  a  children's  meeting  and  questioning  the 
little  ones  as  to  their  discipleship?  If  so,  you  have 
been  pleased  with  the  certainty  and  immediateness 
of  their  replies.  "Are  you  a  Christian?"  "No.'* 
"Are  you  a  Christian?"  "Yes."  There  is  no 
hesitation. 

The  loyalty  and  affection  of  a  child  for  the  church 
of  which  it  is  a  member  is  a  further  incentive  for 
the  gathering  them  into  such  sympathy  with  the 
church,  that  they  will  eventually  unite  with  its 
communion. 

18 


THE  MISSION 

The  mission  of  the  Junior  Congregation  is  of 
course  the  supplying  of  the  deficiency  in  church 
methods,  and  the  lack  in  church  life  that  gives 
rise  to  these  motives  mentioned  in  the  previous 
chapter. 

It  is  therefore  not  a  substitute  for  any  other 
organization  of  the  church's  life,  nor  is  it  intended 
to  interfere  with  any  of  those  most  estimable 
societies  for  the  training  of  young  hearts  along  the 
line  of  Christian  work.  Its  mission  is  apart  from 
these.  They  parallel  the  life  of  the  church  and 
its  worship ;  the  Junior  Congregation  is  an  integral 
part  of  the  church  and  its  worship.  While  its 
methods  follow  closely,  of  necessity,  those  of 
Christian  Endeavor  societies  and  mission  bands, 
it  is  not  intended  to  be  merged  into  the  Christian 
Endeavor  movement. 

The  one  works  for  the  church.  The  other  is 
the  church  at  work.  The  distinction  may  be  more 
fancied  than  real,  yet  if  the  intent  of  the  Junior 
Congregation  movement  be  carried  out,  the  children 
will  be  conscious  of  a  part  in  the  church  life  which 
Christian  Endeavor,  no  matter  how  excellent, 
cannot  supply.  The  Junior  Endeavorer  looks 
forward  to  a  day  when  he  shall  become  a  part  of 
the  body  of  the  church.     The  junior  member  of 

19 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

the  congregation  is  already  a  part  of  the  body  of 
the  church. 

It  is  to  teach  the  child  that  as  a  baptized  member 
of  the  visible  church  of  Christ  he  has  a  real  place 
in  its  worship,  its  government  and  its  life.  The 
mission  of  the  Junior  Congregation  is  also  to  foster 
a  love  for  church  going,  and  for  the  house  of 
God. 

Many  a  distracted  parent  has  said  to  me:  ''I  do 
so  dislike  to  force  my  children  to  go  to  church,  and 
yet  what  am  I  to  do?  I  fail  to  get  them  interested." 
I  think  I  know  why.  A  back  seat  where  the  little 
head  can  scarcely  lift  itself  over  the  pew  in  front, 
with  such  a  sea  of  bonnets  in  his  line  of  vision 
that  he  cannot  see  the  preacher.  A  long  formal 
service  followed  by  a  sermon  in  which  there  is 
never  a  reference  to  the  child  nor  an  illustration 
he  can  grasp.  A  glance  occasionally  from  the 
paternal  relatives'  corner  that  freezes  the  blood, 
whenever  tired  nerves  rebel  and  little  feet  shuffle 
and  kick  the  pew  in  front. 

How  many  of  you  preachers  and  teachers  who 
read  these  lines,  ever  really  "loved"  the  house  of 
God  under  such  conditions?  How  many  of  you 
would  have  given  the  contents  of  your  boyish 
pockets  at  that  moment,  no  matter  how  full  of 
boyhood's  treasures,  to  be  free  ?  Be  honest  and 
confess  it.  And  yet  strange  as  it  may  seem  to 
you,  I  have  heard  of  children  who  eagerly  asked 
permission    to  attend  divine  worship,  and  who^ 

20 


THE  MISSION 

meeting  the  preacher  on  the  way,  have  stopped 
him  to  ask  him,  "What's  it  goin'  to  be  about  to- 
day?" But  these  children  were  members  of  a 
Junior  Congregation. 

There  is  a  mission  which  this  organization  holds 
in  training  the  young  mind  to  listen  to  preaching. 
I  can  blame  no  one  for  not  being  attentive 
to  that  which  is  unintelligible.  I  recently  listened 
for  five  minutes  to  a  lecture  on  Christian  Science; 
then  I  spent  the  remainder  of  the  half  hour  count- 
ing the  pattern  squares  in  the  ceiling. 

By  training  the  young  mind  to  listen  to  a  logically 
thought-out  sermon  with  its  heads  and  subheads, 
its  firstlies  and  secondlies  and  even  the  deadly 
thirdly,  but  couched  in  such  language,  and  illus- 
trated in  such  form  that  it  fixed  the  attention  while 
it  instructed  and  filled  the  mind;  and  then  getting 
the  child  to  write  out  an  analysis  of  the  same  to 
be  brought  in  the  following  Sabbath,  you  give 
the  child  a  taste  for  sermon  processes,  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  how  to  hear  and  digest  the  truth  that 
will  stay  by  him  forever.  And  then  it  is  their 
sermon.  Not  for  a  moment  does  it  belong  to 
mother  or  father,  although  I  have  learned  that 
both  mother  and  father  are  children  after  all  and 
love  best  the  thoughts  that  are  preached  to  the 
child.  Because  it  is  theirs  they  love  it,  and  with 
a  child's  loyalty  deem  it  the  best  sermon  the  pastor 
preaches. 

There  is  a  very  definite  need  of  teaching  the 
21 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

young  to  hear  preaching.  The  excellent  methods 
of  Christian  Endeavor  have  been  rather  toward 
practice  than  precept,  and  have  given  the  pen- 
dulum a  swing  toward  doing  rather  than  doctrine. 
This  is  not  by  any  means  a  wholesome  attitude, 
for  it  is  carried  to  such  excesses  that  the  young 
people  after  singing  and  reading  verses  in  the 
lecture  room  pass  out  in  large  numbers  to  their 
homes,  neglecting  the  church  service  where  the 
truth  is  preached.  The  very  natural  result  is 
that  the  real  deep  truths  of  the  gospel,  which 
they  have  not  been  able  to  think  out  for  them- 
selves, they  have  not  acquired.  And  as  a  conse- 
quence the  Christian  life  and  the  church  life 
become  shallow,  emotional,  and  without  a  solid 
foundation. 

Then  the  Junior  Congregation  has  a  mission  in 
the  creation  of  a  love  in  the  heart  of  the  child  for 
church  work.  We  know  the  tendency  in  child 
training  to  lead  a  child  to  its  life's  work  through 
the  medium  of  play.  One  of  the  most  precious 
of  books  to  me  as  a  child  was  a  volume  highly 
illustrated,  and  entitled  *' Playing  Trades."  We 
are  all  conscious  of  the  value  of  this  method.  For 
to  everyone  the  work  that  becomes  play  is  the 
better  done.  Playing  at  church  work,  is  a  part  of 
the  Junior  idea.  And  who  does  not  know  the  joy 
that  comes  to  a  child  who  is  conscious  that  he  is 
a  part  of  a  great  undertaking,  and  is  contributing 
to  its  success,  not  from  the  outside  as  an  onlooker, 
22 


THE  MISSION 

but  from  the  inside  as  a  partaker.  On  one  of  the 
Sound  steamers  a  little  fellow  running  about  on 
the  upper  deck  had  laid  hold  of  the  great  tiller 
that  is  carried  attached  to  the  rudderhead  for  use 
in  steering  in  an  emergency.  And  as  the  great 
helm  moved  to  and  fro  it  carried  the  little  chap 
with  it.  In  the  greatest  glee  he  cried  out  to  his 
mother — "  See,  see,  mother,  I'm  steering  the 
boat.'*  To  give  the  Junior  even  a  hold  on  the 
inner  workings  of  the  church,  is  to  inspire  in  him 
somewhat  of  the  same  zeal. 

I  can  well  recall  the  feeling  of  pride  that  came  to 
me  in  those  blissful  circus  days  of  boyhood,  to 
feel  that  I  was  a  part  of  the  "Greatest  Show  on 
Earth"  because  I  was  allowed  to  carry  water  for 
the  elephants. 

For  the  members  of  the  Junior  Congregation, 
to  take  up  the  offering  of  their  own  little  band  on 
a  Sabbath  morning  before  the  great  church  service, 
to  usher  to  their  seats  the  newcomers  among  the 
boys  and  girls,  to  hold  their  business  and  devo- 
tional meetings  and  elect  officers  just  such  as  are 
elected  at  the  annual  business  meetings  of  the 
church,  is  a  sufficient  incentive  to  secure  their  in- 
terest in  the  church  and  its  life  for  years  to  come. 

And  in  addition  to  all  this  the  great  missionary 
interests  of  the  church  are  to  be  helped.  There  is 
of  course  a  most  useful  and  systematic  training  in 
missions  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  Endeavor 
societies  and  mission  bands,  but  there  is  a  sad 

23 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

lack  of  loyalty  in  many  of  them  to  the  great 
channels  of  missionary  work  and  life — the  great 
boards  of  the  churches.  More  and  more  must 
we  emphasize  the  necessity  of  the  support  of  these 
regularly  appointed  channels  through  whose  most 
efficient  agency  the  gifts  of  the  churches  are  passed 
on  to  the  fields  where  the  work  is  being  done.  It 
is  true  of  the  denomination  to  which  the  writer  be- 
longs that  no  other  religious  denomination  is  so 
eclectic  in  its  method  of  giving  as  we,  for  every 
charitable  institution  has  a  claim  upon  our  gifts 
while  often  the  great  boards  must  report  serious 
indebtedness.  To  train  the  children  that  the  gifts 
they  make  should  go  through  the  regularly  appoint- 
ed channels,  is  to  breed  a  loyalty  to  their  church 
and  is  to  protect  in  a  most  necessary  manner  the 
authority  and  usefulness  of  the  agencies  of  the 
churches.  This  I  believe  the  Junior  Congrega- 
tion will  do. 

Thus  the  mission  of  the  Junior  church  might 
be  enlarged  indefinitely  as  the  needs  of  the  church 
present  themselves,  for  whatever  the  duties  of  the 
church  member  are  to  be,  they  can  best  be  in- 
stilled within  him  when  he  is  a  child. 


24 


THE  METHOD 

As  to  the  methods  of  dealing  with  such  a  Junior 
Congregation  as  has  been  briefly  described  above, 
we  might  for  convenience  divide  our  work  into 
two  general  parts.  You  will  be  concerned  pri- 
marily with  your  youthful  congregation  in  the 
services  of  the  church,  especially  in  the  morning 
service.  And  you  will  be  engaged  from  time  to 
time  with  them  in  a  more  informal  and  more  in- 
timate relation  in  their  little  meetings,  as  a  body 
by  themselves. 

In  the  morning  service  of  the  church  you  will 
have  the  greatest  opportunity,  for  you  will  stand 
before  them  as  you  stand  before  their  elders  as  the 
prophet  of  God  with  a  message  for  the  child  heart 
from  the  Master.  It  will  be  the  severest  test- 
ing you  will  have  the  whole  week.  It  will  also 
be  the  most  blessed  ten  minutes  in  all  your 
seven  days. 

For  methods  I  care  little.  You  will  exercise 
your  own  judgment  in  the  method  of  getting  the 
message  into  the  child.  But  if  experience  of  others 
will  help  you,  you  will  have  the  children  seated 
before  you  in  the  first  rows  of  pews.  If  there 
are  not  pews  enough  to  accommodate  the  little 
ones,  go  in  debt  for  more,  or  bring  in  the  chapel 
chairs.     But  have  them  together  and  before  you. 

25 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

And  if  you  are  half  a  man,  the  sight  of  that  array 
of  sweetness  and  Hght  will  make  you  a  preacher  in 
spite  of  yourself.  The  boyish  heart  is  chivalrous,  so 
you  will  have  boy  ushers  to  seat  the  young  ladies 
as  they  come  in.  Four  of  them  can  take  up  the 
offering,  and  I  miss  my  estimate  of  the  children  if 
they  will  not  feel  a  swelling  pride  as  they  stand 
with  the  ushers  of  the  church  while  the  pastor 
asks  God's  blessing  upon  their  gifts.  Let  the  gifts 
be  made  in  tiny  numbered  envelopes,  for  the 
Juniors  desire  to  be  regular  contributors  to  the 
church. 

And  then  you  will  preach  to  them.  Yes  I  must 
use  the  word,  but  with  its  sternness  all  removed. 
You  will  be  the  child's  interpreter  as  Jesus  speaks 
to  their  hearts.  And  you  must  know  their  lan- 
guage. 

Oh,  those  blessed  ten  minutes,  never  exceeded 
without  loss — what  a  preparation  for  the  message 
for  their  parents  by  and  by! 

Then  you  will  sing  their  hymn,  and  they  will 
pass  out. 

Sometimes  they  will  sing  in  chorus  before  the 
"great  congregation."  Sometimes  there  will  be 
a  whole  morning  devoted  to  them.  But  they  will 
go  to  their  homes  in  the  consciousness  of  having 
been  in  God's  house  and  that  God's  minister  has 
brought  God's  message  to  them. 

Then  perhaps  you  have  given  them  textbooks 
in  which  to  keep  record  of  the  sermon  preached. 

26 


THE  METHOD 

There  will  be  a  great  day,  when  at  the  end  of 
every  quarter,  these  books  are  returned  and  ex- 
amined and  some  one  of  the  many  smiling  faces 
will  be  doubly  radiant  as  the  owner  comes  forward 
before  the  grown-ups  to  get  the  prize  for  the  best 
kept  book,  or  to  receive  the  reward  for  having 
written  the  best  outline  of  a  special  sermon  preached 
to  the  children  that  they  might  learn  the  method 
of  properly  listening  to  preaching.  Varied  as  the 
mind  of  man  are  the  methods  with  our  boys  and 
girls  at  church. 

If  we  gather  them  for  a  meeting  we  shall 
see  to  it  that  the  whole  organization  of  a  local 
church  of  the  denomination  to  which  they  belong 
is  represented  to  them  in  miniature.  There  will 
needs  be  deacons  and  elders  and  trustees;  dea- 
conesses and  boards  and  societies.  There  will  be 
a  prayer  meeting,  and  a  board  meeting.  In  short, 
every  branch  of  the  church's  activities  can  be  rep- 
resented in  these  gatherings  of  the  Juniors  during 
the  week.  Christian  Endeavor  methods  may 
prevail,  but  the  main  ideal  is  to  get  the  boys  and 
girls  to  understand  that  they  are  a  part  of  the  great 
church  at  work  and  acquaint  them  with  the  real 
activities  of  church  life. 


27 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 


THE  MATERIAL  OR  THE  MESSAGE 

Under  this  head  I  have  gathered  together  a  set 
of  sermons  preached  to  my  own  congregation  of 
boys  and  girls.  And  in  so  doing  I  have  tried  to 
give  only  those  that  seemed  to  reach  and  in- 
fluence the  child  heart.  They  are  not  intended  to 
be  exhaustive,  but  only  suggestive — mere  outlines 
upon  which  to  build  complete  sermons. 


28 


THE   RAILROAD    FROG 

Text — Job  23:10.     "He  knoweth  the  way  that  I  take." 
Object — A  railroad  frog,  or  one  from  a  child's  toy  railway. 

My  Dear  Young  Travelers: 

To-day  marks  the  beginning  of  a  new  journey  in 
that  great  tour  of  "Life"  that  you  are  all  making. 
What  can  I  say  to  you  as  you  are  starting?  What 
advice  can  I  give  you  as  I  look  back  at  you  from 
the  place  to  which  some  of  the  older  of  us  have  come, 
and  as  we  see  you  getting  on  the  train  just  where 
we  once  got  on? 

The  other  day  I  was  coming  out  from  town  on 
the  railroad  and  when  we  reached  the  car  yards 
in  the  western  part  of  the  city  we  went  over  an 
innumerable  number  of  tracks  and  switches  all 
running  together  like  the  threads  of  a  spider's  web. 
We  crossed  and  recrossed  and  rattled  over  switch 
after  switch  till  we  finally  got  on  the  right  track 
toward  home.  How  we  did  it  seemed,  as  one 
looked  at  it,  a  mystery  that  no  one  could  ex- 
plain. How  that  train  going  at  full  speed,  never 
slowing  up,  found  its  way  out  of  that  ''mystic 
maze"  of  tracks  and  finally  got  to  our  station, 
seemed  as  we  sat  in  the  cars,  like  doing  the 
impossible. 

29 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

But  it  was  very  easy.  Why?  Because  at  each 
crossing  was  a  "frog," — Hke  this,  only  made  of 
steel  and  much  larger,  with  a  point  running  in 
between  the  rails  that  caught  the  flange  of  the 
wheels  and  turned  them  in  the  proper  courses. 
And  because  these  *' cross  frogs"  were  there  we 
got  out  of  the  tangle  of  rails  and  so  at  last  to  our 
station.  I  think  of  your  young  lives  at  the  be- 
ginning of  this  new  year,  as  the  starting  of  so  many 
trains  of  cars  all  moving  off  together.  Paul 
likened  our  lives  to  a  race,  but  in  these  days  of 
rapid  travel  we  may  think  of  our  lives  as  a  train. 
You  leave  the  station  at  the  first  day  of  the  year, 
and  with  a  full  head  of  steam  on  you  move  out  on 
the  tracks.  It  is  not  long  before  you  get  into  the 
tangle  of  ways.  There  are  a  hundred  paths  and 
a  hundred  tracks,  and  you  get  confused  and  do 
not  know  just  which  way  you  are  going,  and  you 
get  a  little  anxious  as  to  where  you  are  coming  out. 
But  you  can  go  on,  for  there  is  a  "  frog"  just  ahead 
which  the  Great  Train  Master  has  put  there  and 
when  you  come  to  it,  it  will  turn  you  on  to  the  right 
track.  This  frog  that  I  am  speaking  of,  my  young 
fellow  voyagers,  is  the  purpose  of  God  for  you. 
To-day  we  make  many  "resolutions"  but  few  of 
them  will  be  kept,  for  we  cannot  foresee  just  what 
is  coming  in  the  journey.  But  God  knows.  He 
knows  just  where  he  has  put  the  "frog"  of  his  will 
for  you.  And  when  you  come  to  it,  your  train 
will  slide  safely  over  onto  the  track  where  he  wants 

30 


THE  RAILROAD  FROG 

you  to  be.  That  is  what  Job  meant  when  he  said 
to  us  in  our  new-year  text — "He  knoweth  the 
way  that  I  take." 

Now  if  God  has  put  these  frogs  of  his  purposes 
in  our  Hne,  our  part  is  simply  to  go  on.  How 
funny  it  would  be  if  an  engineer  should  get  out  of 
his  cab  at  every  frog  and  sit  down  and  wonder 
why  it  was  put  there.  That's  the  business  of  the 
superintendent  of  the  road. 

But  let  me  ask  a  moment — what  is  it  that 
makes  it  possible  for  the  frog  to  turn  the  train  in 
the  right  track? 

It  is  that  part  of  the  wheel  which  falls  below 
the  rail,  which  we  call  the  ''flange."  That  little 
flange  runs  into  the  grooves  of  the  frog  and  guides 
the  cars  to  their  destination.  And  I  think  that 
each  of  us  should  see  as  we  start  this  new-year 
journey,  that  the  flanges  of  our  trains  are  strong. 
What  shall  we  call  them?  "  Trust,''  I  think. 
Sometimes  the  flanges  are  not  perfect  and  do  not 
follow  the  frog,  and  then  there  is  an  awful  accident 
and  men  and  women  and  children  are  killed.  And 
sometimes  we  do  not  want  to  follow  God's  pur- 
poses, and  are  not  willing  that  he  should  guide  us. 
God  puts  a  frog  in  our  way  and  we  jump  it  and  get 
off  the  track.  But,  oh!  what  a  comfortable  feeling 
we  can  have  if  we  know  that  the  flanges  are  all 
right,  and  we  can  sit  in  our  seats  and  bump,  and 
bump  over  the  rails  and  know  that  it's  all  right  and 
we  shall  come  out.     When  I  was  in  the  Catacombs 

31 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

of  Rome — way  down  among  the  old  dead  saints — 
there  was  a  monk  that  guided  us  through  the 
narrow  and  criss-cross  paths,  all  so  pitchy  dark 
and  dismal,  and  I  thought  of  this  text,  and  how 
glad  was  I  that  the  monk  knew  the  way  that  we 
were  to  take. 

Here  is  a  pretty  little  story  of  trust. 

Some  years  ago  I  took  my  little  boy  to  church. 
The  pavements  were  very  slippery  and  although 
the  boy  boasted  that  he  could  walk  alone,  he 
frequently  fell,  and  it  was  not  till  he  placed  his 
hand  in  mine  that  he  could  walk  without  the 
danger  of  falling.  The  day  after  Christmas  he 
said  to  me  "Father,  yesterday  the  Devil  tried 
to  make  me  eat  candy  that  mother  said  I  musn't 
touch;  but  he  couldn't  do  it,  although  I  did 
want  it." 

I  reminded  him  of  the  walk  we  took  the  previous 
Sunday,  and  asked  him  if  he  remembered  how 
hard  it  was  to  stand  up  and  how  often  he  fell; 
and  also  how  it  was  that  he  finally  managed  to 
stand  and  walk  along  safely.  *'Yes,  I  remember 
it  all,"  he  said;  "I  put  my  hand  in  yours, 
father." 

And  then  I  said,  "And  now,  my  boy,  when 
the  Devil  tempts  you  to  do  wrong,  how  will  you 
be  able  to  stand  and  walk  upright?"  And  the  little 
fellow  answered  reverently,  "I'll  put  my  hand  in 
God's." 

Is  that  what  you  boys  and  girls  are  willing 
32 


THE  RAILROAD  FROG 

to  do?  *'He  knoweth  the  way  that  you  take." 
Yes,  for  he  has  planned  every  bit  of  the  line.  So 
just  keep  up  your  full  head  of  steam  and  go  right 
along  and  let  God  steer  you  where  he  wants  you 
to  be. 


33 


SMOOTHING  OUT  THE  BUMPS 

Text — Luke  3  :  5.    "And  the  rough  ways  shall  be  made 
smooth." 
Object— A  file. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

If  you  have  travelled  on  the  trolley  cars  much 
in  our  city  you  have  probably  noticed  the  jolting 
that  one  gets  when  the  wheels  of  the  car  hit  the 
cracks  at  the  joints  of  the  rails.  And  if  you  live 
on  a  street  where  trolleys  run,  you  have  found  it 
difficult  on  a  summer's  night  to  get  to  sleep  be- 
cause of  the  constant  thump,  thump  of  the  wheels 
over  these  bumps. 

But  if  you  could  go  out  very  late  at  night  on 
some  of  the  streets,  you  would  see  men  very 
busily  engaged  in  drawing  back  and  forth  over 
these  joints  huge  files  worked  by  two  men,  one  of 
whom  pushed  and  one  pulled.  On  inquiring,  you 
would  find  that  they  are  smoothing  out  these 
bumps,  and  making  the  passage  from  one  rail  to 
the  other  less  painful  to  the  rider,  and  less  disturb- 
ing to  the  sleeper. 

What  a  benevolent  lot  of  men  they  seemed  to 
me  as  I  saw  them.  Engaged  in  rubbing  out 
bumps  while  others  sleep.  Smoothing  the  paths  of 
others  whom  perhaps  they  would  never  see.    And 

34 


SMOOTHING  OUT  THE  BUMPS 

you  have  never  thought,  for  I  never  had  before, 
what  a  host  of  men  and  women  in  this  great  weary 
world  are  engaged  in  getting  rid  of  the  bumps  and 
smoothing  the  path  for  others.  There  are  the 
railroad  section  hands  that  keep  the  tracks  level. 
There  is  the  engineer  that  runs  the  steam  roller 
in  front  of  your  home  to  make  the  road  smooth 
for  driving.  Yes,  and  there  is  the  teacher  staying 
after  school  to  help  ''little  Bill"  over  the  hard 
places.  And  best  of  all  there  is  mother  working  her 
dear  hands  off  to  make  life  easier  for  her  boy  and 
girl. 

Now  our  text  tells  us  that  John  the  Baptist 
was  coming  to  tell  of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  and  to 
smooth  things  out  in  the  lives  of  men  so  that  that 
kingdom  of  love  might  come.  For  the  progress 
of  that  kingdom  of  Jesus  means  always  a  smoothing 
out  of  the  bumps  and  unevennesses  of  life.  It 
means  hospitals  for  the  sick,  and  homes  for  the 
poor,  and  orphanages  for  the  little  ones  and  the 
doing  away  with  war  and  strife. 

So  when  Jesus  comes  into  our  hearts  we  must 
at  once  get  rid  of  all  the  bumps,  and  smooth  out 
the  path  for  others  in  the  world  about  us  who 
have  got  to  travel  its  highways. 

We  must  try  each  day  to  smooth  mother's  path, 
and  teacher's  path,  and  little  sister's  or  brother's 
path ;  and  to  make  life  a  little  better  for  our  play- 
mates and  for  those  who  are  in  need. 

And  then,  too,  we  can,  like  John  the  Baptist, 
35 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

make  the  way  easier  for  our  dear  Lord  and 
Master,  Jesus. 

When  President  Garfield  was  so  very  ill  after 
the  bullet  of  the  assassin  had  laid  him  low,  the 
doctors  said  he  must  get  to  the  sea.  So  willing 
hands  worked  night  and  day  laying  a  track  from 
Long  Branch  to  Elberon  that  his  car  in  which 
he  was  being  borne  might  not  have  to  be  changed 
for  a  carriage,  that  he  might  be  moved  from  the 
White  House  in  Washington  to  the  seashore 
without  a  jar. 

And  so  ought  we  to  work,  my  young  laborers,  to 
build  a  smooth  and  happy  highway  along  which 
our  King  can  move. 

Some  time  ago  a  gentleman  did  me  a  kindness, 
and  when  I  thanked  him  he  said,  "  Oh,  it  is  nothing! 
I  am  in  this  world  to  make  it  move  a  little  more 
smoothly  if  I  can."  What  a  blessed  mission! 
The  other  night  on  one  of  the  great  Long  Island 
Sound  steamers  I  watched  the  oiler  reaching  out 
over  the  great  pistons,  and  as  each  came  round  he 
dropped  one  drop  of  oil  on  the  hot  bearings — to 
make  them  run  without  friction. 

What  a  happy  office  one  has  in  life  who  makes 
it  his  or  her  business  to  make  things  run  smoothly. 


36 


THE  FUNNEL,  THE  SIFTER  AND  THE 
SPONGE. 

Text — Ps.  119  :  II.  "  Thy  word  have  I  hid  in  mine  heart, 
that  I  might  not  sin  against  thee." 

Objects — A  funnel,  a  sifter  and  a  sponge. 

My  Dear  Young  Hearers: 

Here  are  some  curious  objects  from  the  house- 
hold which  may  serve  us  this  morning  to  illustrate 
the  proper  and  improper  ways  of  treating  the  word 
of  God  that  is  preached  to  us  each  Sunday  from 
this  pulpit  and  taught  to  us  in  the  Sunday  school. 
I  have  a  funnel,  a  sifter  for  flour  and  a  sponge. 

There  are  some  of  us  who  hear  the  word  of  God 
after  the  manner  of  the  funnel.  The  use  of  this 
useful  utensil  in  the  kitchen  you  all  know.  When 
mother  wants  to  pour  from  a  large  vessel  into  a 
small,  the  narrow  neck  of  this  funnel  and  its  broad 
top  make  such  a  thing  possible.  All  goes  through 
nicely  without  spilling  a  drop,  or  leaving  any 
behind.  Now  some  of  you  boys  and  girls  are  apt 
to  treat  God's  word  much  as  the  water  that  passes 
through  the  funnel.  You  let  it  all  go  through 
easily.  Sometimes  we  say  that  "it  goes  in  one 
ear  and  out  of  the  other."  We  sit  and  listen  to 
all  that  is  said,  but  none  of  it  sticks.  It  all  runs 
through.  By  Sunday  night  it  has  all  gone  and  we 
could  hardly  tell  mother  when  we  got  home  what 

37 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

the  text  was.  Or  perhaps  as  wc  listen  and  take  it  all 
in  we  say  to  ourselves — "That  was  a  fine  sermon  for 
Joe,"  or  **  That  truth  was  a  good  one  for  Mary," 
and  we  let  it  run  right  through  us  for  whom  it 
was  really  meant,  hoping  that  Joe  or  Mary  will 
hear  it  and  heed  it.  Now  when  we  do  that  we 
are  what  we  might  call  "funnel  hearers,"  not 
the  kind  of  hearers  that  the  Psalmist  speaks 
of  here. 

Then  there  are  some  of  us  who  hear  the  word  of 
God  after  the  manner  of  the  sifter.  You  have  seen 
the  cook  sifting  flour  for  her  bread-making.  Some 
of  it  goes  through,  and  a  little  stays  behind.  But 
that  which  stays  behind  is  usually  lumps  and  dirt, 
and  is  thrown  away.  The  good  goes  through. 
So  it  is  that  some  of  us  hear  the  word  of  God.  We 
keep  the  dirt  or  tlie  useless  part  and  let  all  the 
good  go  through.  Not  that  any  of  the  word  of 
God  is  wholly  useless,  but  we  often  keep  and  re- 
member the  things  that  are  not  important.  Some 
study  the  Bible  only  to  find  the  flaws  in  it. 
Some  stud>-  onK'  to  find  the  peculiar  passages  in 
it.  Some  hunt  to  find  out  the  shortest  and  longest 
verses.  One  old  man  was  one  day  sitting  ponder- 
ing on  the  word  of  God  and  a  passerby  said  to  him, 
''Well,  my  brother,  what  have  you  found  in  the 
book  to-day  that  interests  you?"  And  the  old  man 
looking  up  eagerly  replied,  "I  have  found  that 
I  have  two  more  sheep  than  Job  had."  But  God 
did  not  mean  us  to  use  his  word  tliat  way.     It  is 


THE  FUNNEL,  THE  SIFTER  AND  THE  SPONGE 

filled  with  messages  that  are  to  do  us  good  if  we 
receive  them  and  live  them.  We  are  not  to  sift 
out  the  best  and  keep  the  merely  pleasurable  or 
curious.  Such  people  we  might  call  "sifter 
hearers." 

Then  there  are  some  who  hear  the  word  of  God 
after  the  manner  of  the  sponge.  Now  when  we 
dip  the  sponge  in  water,  it  soaks  up  the  water  and 
instead  of  letting  it  go  through,  it  holds  it.  Every 
little  pore  of  the  sponge  takes  its  share  and  keeps 
it.  And  we  can  only  get  the  water  out  by  squeez- 
ing. I  am  glad  to  say  that  there  are  men  and 
women  and  boys  and  girls  that  so  receive  the  word 
of  God  when  it  is  read,  and  taught,  and  preached. 
So  was  it  with  the  Psalmist  whose  words  we  have 
quoted  to-day.  "Thy  word,"  he  tells  us,  "have  I 
hid  in  mine  heart,  that  I  might  not  sin  against  thee." 
He  had  taken  the  word  into  his  heart  as  the  sponge 
takes  the  water  into  itself. 

It  was  England's  queen  who  told  us  to  "mark, 
learn  and  inwardly  digest "  the  word  of  God.  "Thy 
words  were  found  and  I  did  eat  them"  says  one 
of  God's  prophets.  These  then  are  the  "sponge 
hearers."  Now  look — I  am  going  to  dip  this 
sponge  in  this  red  ink.  See — it  takes  up  and  holds 
the  color  of  the  ink.  If  I  take  sin  into  my  soul  it 
will  stain  it  forever.  But  if  I  take  up  God's  word 
into  my  life,  my  life  will  be  always  colored  with 
God's  truth.  Let  us  then  learn  to  be  "sponge 
hearers."     Take  heed  how  ye  hear.     And  remember 

39 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

the  words  of  the  apostle,  "Let  the  word  of  Christ 
dwell  in  you  richly." 

It  is  marvelous  how  like  to  a  sponge  the  brains 
of  you  young  Christians  are.  Think  of  the  wonder- 
ful things  you  have  absorbed  in  the  last  few  years. 
You  learn  more  in  your  first  five  years  of  life  than 
you  will  ever  learn  in  the  next  twenty.  By  and 
by  when  you  grow  old  and  gray  you  will  be  better 
able  to  tell  about  what  is  happening  in  your  lives 
to-day  than  what  happened  the  day  when  you  were 
fifty. 

It  is  marvelous  to  consider  the  number  of  things 
that  you  learn  in  your  childhood. 

And  I  hope  that  you  will  take  up  and  retdin  as 
well  that  which  is  of  more  value  than  all  ydur 
stores  of  knowledge — the  message  of  God  to  our 
souls.  Just  as  in  the  sponge  the  water  fills  every 
one  of  the  many  pores,  so  let  God's  word  go  into 
every  little  portion  of  your  young  lives. 

When  Paul  tells  us  to  let  the  word  of  God  "dwell 
in  us  richly,"  he  really  says  in  the  language  in  which 
he  wrote — "keep  house."  And  we  know  that 
when  we  keep  house  we  have  access  to  all  the  rooms. 
So  are  we  to  let  God's  word  come  into  every  chamber 
and  secret  closet.  Open  your  eyes  and  ears,  but 
above  all  open  your  hearts  to  the  entrance  of  the 
word  of  God. 


40 


BOLTS   AND   HINGES 

Objects — Some  iron  bolts  and  hinges  of  various  sorts. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

I  have  in  my  hand  this  morning  some  things  that 
are  very  useful  in  the  building  of  a  house.  This 
fellow  here  is  a  screw  bolt  and  this  one  a  door 
hinge.  And  while  they  both  enter  into  the  con- 
struction of  the  building,  they  produce  vastly 
different  results.  I  have  brought  them  here  for 
you  because  you  are  yourselves  doing  some  build- 
ing.    You  are  all  little  master-builders. 

And  more  than  that,  you  are  building  a  house 
which  is  to  be  the  dwelling  place  of  a  King.  "Ye 
are  God's  building,"  says  the  apostle. 

And  there  is  a  place  for  both  of  these  objects 
which  I  hold,  in  the  house  of  self,  that  you  are 
erecting. 

Sometimes  you  will  want  to  use  the  one,  some- 
times the  other. 

Will  you  let  me  tell  you  now  when  each  is  best 
— the  times  when  hinges  are  better  than  bolts, 
and  when  bolts  are  better  than  hinges? 

First  then — the  time  when  a  hinge  is  best. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Phillppian  Christians  Paul 
says,  "Let  your  moderation  be  known  to  all  men." 
Now  boys  and  girls,  that  word  "moderation" 
means  really  "yieldingness,"  the  power  of  giving 

41 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

Up  and  giving  in.  It  means  meekness,  but  not 
weakness.  Sometimes  we  get  the  idea  that  to 
yield  is  to  be  a  *' mollycoddle."  Nothing  of  the 
kind.  It's  the  bravest  kind  of  bravery  to  be  able 
to  "give  up." 

Now  some  people  are  put  together  like  this — 
(Illustrate  by  the  bolt  which  is  stiff  and  unyielding) 
— no  give  to  them,  no  gentleness  in  them,  no 
moderation  in  them. 

When  is  it  better  then  to  be  a  hinge  that  moves 
back  and  forth? 

In  times  of  an  injury  done  you  by  another. 

Jesus  used  the  hinge  in  his  life  most  of  the  time. 
He  was  forgiving.  Lord  Eardly  Wilmot  once 
said,  "It  may  be  manly  to  resent  an  injury,  but 
it  is  Christlike  to  forgive  one." 

There  was  once  an  old  woman  who  had  been  a 
very  great  sinner,  and  had  had  a  very  vile  tongue. 
She  had  given  herself  to  Jesus,  and  one  day  one  of 
her  old  companions  came  up  and  tried  to  provoke 
her,  ending  by  calling  her  "a  good-for-nothing 
old  hag,"  but  the  old  lady  had  put  a  hinge  in  where 
the  bolt  used  to  be  and  she  answered — "Yes,  and 
isn't  it  wonderful  that  Jesus  Christ  could  save  an 
old  hag  Hke  me?" 

If  I  strike  this  hinge  thus,  it  will  bend.  And 
Jesus  said  that  we  are  to  turn  the  other  cheek. 
"A  soft  answer  turneth  away  wrath." 

There  are  times  then  when  it  is  better  to  be  a 
hinge  than  a  bolt. 

42 


BOLTS  AND  HINGES 

And  it  is  better  in  the  time  of  trouble. 

It  is  better  to  bend  than  to  break.  It  is  better 
to  smile  than  stiffly  to  bear  our  sorrows.  When  you 
were  little  fellows  you  used  to  run  on  the  melting 
ice  on  the  pond  doing  what  we  called  "running 
benders."  And  you  used  to  cry  out  as  you  ran, 
"As  long  as  she  bends  she  holds."  When  we 
bend  under  trials  we  do  not  suffer  so. 

But  there  are  times  when  a  bolt  is  decidedly 
better. 

Paul  tells  the  Corinthians  in  his  first  letter  to 
them — "Be  ye  steadfast,  unmovable." 

It  is  always  better  to  be  a  bolt  when  it  comes  to 
a  matter  of  doing  right. 

It  is  always  better  to  be  a  bolt  when  it  is  a 
matter  of  doing  our  duty. 

Joseph  used  a  lot  of  bolts  in  his  building.  Daniel 
was  bolted  together  fast.  So  were  the  three 
young  men  who  went  into  the  fiery  furnace. 
Jesus  found  it  very  often  better  to  use  the  bolts 
than  the  hinges,  as  when  he  drove  the  money 
changers  out  of  the  temple. 

Boys  and  girls,  always  have  plenty  of  backbone. 

And  be  sure  you  always  know  when  to  use  one 
and  when  to  use  the  other. 


43 


THE   BREAD   OF   LIFE 

Object — A  loaf  of  bread. 

My  Dear  Young  Disciples: 

I  am  sure  that  every  boy  or  girl  here  to-day  knows 
what  it  is  to  be  hungry.  I  should  be  worried 
about  you  if  you  did  not.  For  somehow  hunger  is 
a  part  of  the  program  of  your  childhood. 

Now  hunger  is  universal.  No  matter  who  the 
boy  is  or  where  he  is,  he  is  bound  to  be  hungry. 
All  the  wealth  of  Croesus,  or  as  better  known  to 
you,  of  Mr.  Rockefeller,  would  not  prevent  that. 
So  God  in  his  mercy  and  wisdom  has  made 
arrangements  for  that,  and  we  find  that  bread, 
too,  is  universal.  No  matter  what  other  kinds 
of  food  the  different  nations  eat,  with  few  exceptions 
bread  is  everywhere.  In  Scotland  the  boys  and 
girls  eat  "scones,"  in  Germany  they  eat  "Kaiser 
rolls,"  in  Italy  the  great  cart-wheel  loaves  of 
coarse  flour;  in  France  bread  which,  because  of 
its  yard-long  lengths,  looks  as  though  it  might 
be  rightly  called  the  "staff  of  life,"  and  be  taken 
for  Mr.  Roosevelt's  "big  stick."  And  here  in  our 
own  dear  homeland  we  eat  the  finest  of  the  wheat. 

Jesus  knew  that  we  would  all  be  hungry,  and  all 
eat  bread,  and  so  he  taught  us  to  say  as  we  pray — 
"Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 


THE  BREAD  OF  LIFE 

Now  all  bread  comes  of  course  from  God  the 
Father.  When  he  sent  the  manna  in  the  wilder- 
ness, it  was  to  teach  them  whence  their  provisions 
came.  Sometimes  we  feel  that  we  have  earned 
our  bread,  or  that  the  farmer  has  produced  it  for 
us,  but  we  must  recollect  that: 

**  Back  of  the  bread  is  the  snowy  flour, 
And  back  of  the  flour  the  mill, 
And  back  of  the  mill  the  wheat  and  the  shower 
And  the  sun,  and  the  Father's  will." 

But  there  is  another  kind  of  hunger,  my  hungry 
young  Christians.  We  call  it  soul  hunger.  What 
is  that?  Well,  did  you  ever  when  you  were 
little,  very  little  of  course,  do  a  naughty  thing, 
and  when  mother's  heart  was  vexed  and  the  tears 
were  in  her  eyes  because  of  your  naughty  deed, 
run  to  her  arms  and  sob — "I  want  to  be  good 
mother,  I  want  to  be  good"? 

Yes,  of  course  you  have.  And  when  you  were 
saying  "I  want  to  be  good"  you  had  a  hungry 
feeling  in  your  little  heart  for  goodness.  You  had 
soul  hunger  just  then.  Of  course  you  did  not 
know  it  was  that,  but  it  was.  And  just  as  God 
sent  you  bread  from  heaven  to  feed  your  bodily 
hunger  so  he  sends  you  bread  for  your  soul  hunger. 
Jesus  tells  you  about  it  in  the  Gospel  of  John.  For 
he  talks  about  being  himself  the  "Bread  which 
Cometh  down  from  heaven."  He  tells  us  he  is 
the  bread  of  which  if  a  man  eat  he  shall  never 
hunger  and  shall  live  forever.     Jesus  offers  him- 

45 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

self  to  be  that  bread.  And  when  you  are  hungry 
to  be  good,  Jesus  offers  himself  to  your  young 
hearts  to  satisfy  you  and  make  you  good. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  be  hungry  when  there  is 
bread  in  the  closet,  but  a  poor  thing  when  there 
is  not.  But  there  is  always  heavenly  bread  in 
the  closet.  Jesus  is  always  ready  to  feed  you  with 
his  life,  and  he  says,  "Blessed  are  they  that 
hunger — after  righteousness,  for  they  shall  be  fed." 

All  bread  costs  something.  It  costs  labor  and 
sacrifice.  That  is  why  we  call  patient,  toiling 
father  the  "bread  winner;"  he  has  to  win  it  by 
the  energies  of  his  life.  And  soul  bread  costs 
something  too.  Jesus  said,  "The  bread  which  I 
give  to  the  world  is  my  flesh."  And  to  give  us 
his  life  he  had  to  die  on  the  cross. 

To-day  we  have  spread  before  you  the  bread  of 
the  communion.  It  is  only  earthly  bread,  but  it 
represents  to  us  soul  bread.  It  speaks  to  us  of 
that  bread  which  is  Jesus'  own  life  which  he  broke 
on  the  cross  and  gave  to  us.  Will  you  not  learn 
to  see  that  when  you  are  soul  hungry  this  is  the 
place  to  come  and  meet  Jesus  and  let  him  feed 
you?     I  hope  that  you  will. 


46 


LIFTERS  AND  LEANERS 

Text — Gal.  6:2.    "  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens." 
Objects — A  wooden  handle  for  carrying  bundles,  and  a 
small  toy  ladder. 

My  Dear  Young  Christians: 

I  have  in  my  hand  to-day  two  little  symbols 
that  denote  the  two  classes  into  which  I  have  been 
able  to  divide  all  the  people  in  the  world.  I  wonder 
if  it  ever  occurred  to  you,  as  it  did  to  me,  to  see 
into  what  two  classes  we  could  put  all  mankind 
if  we  were  called  to  divide  them  into  halves 
as  you  do  when  you  are  choosing  up  sides  for  a 
game  of  tag.  First  of  all  I  tried  to  put  them  into 
the  two  classes  which  we  call  '*  good  "  and  "  bad." 
But  I  soon  found  that  this  was  impossible  for  they 
would  get  so  horribly  mixed  up.  I  found  that 
some  of  those  that  I  had  set  on  the  "good"  side 
of  the  line  would  constantly  go  over  on  to  the 
"bad"  side  of  the  line  and  that  those  that  I  had 
labeled  "bad"  would  get  over  somehow  on  to  the 
"good"  side  of  the  line.  And  I  came  to  the  con- 
clusion, as  Jesus  did  when  he  told  the  young 
ruler,  that  there  were  none  wholly  "good"  but 
God.     I  found  that 

"  There  is  so  much  good  in  the  worst  of  us, 
And  so  much  bad  in  the  best  of  us, 
That  it  little  behooves  the  most  of  us< 
To  talk  about  the  rest  of  us." 

47 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

There  is  good  in  the  very  worst  of  men  at  times. 
Some  time  ago  I  read  of  a  criminal  who  was  being 
taken  across  the  street  from  the  prison  to  the 
court  room  in  one  of  our  crowded  cities,  and  who 
while  crossing  the  street  saw  a  little  child  fall  in 
front  of  an  advancing  trolley  car.  Instantly  he 
broke  from  his  escort  and  picked  the  child  from 
the  jaws  of  death  only  to  be  run  down  and  terribly 
injured  himself. 

Then  I  thought  I  could  put  them  into  two  classes 

called    "happy"   and    ''sad";    but   when    I    had 

put  them  there,  the  sad  began  to  be  happy  and 

the  happy  began  to  be  sad,  and  I  knew  that  every 

happy  life  has  its  sad  days  and  every  sad  life  its 

happy  days,  and  I  knew  that  this  would  never  do; 

for  I  remembered  the  poet  says : 

"  Into  each  life  some  rain  must  fall, 
Some  days  must  be  dark  and  dreary," 

Then  I  divided  them  into  "rich"  and  "poor"; 
but  here  again  I  was  at  fault  for  I  saw  at  once 
that  those  that  I  had  put  on  the  rich  side  of  the 
line  were  constantly  longing  for  the  things  that 
they  had  who  were  on  the  poor  side  of  the  line. 
There  were  millionaires  who  wanted  the  health 
and  the  happy  children  of  those  on  the  "poor" 
side,  and  there  were  those  on  the  "poor"  side  that 
would  not  give  them,  for  all  the  gold,  to  those 
on  the  "rich"  side  of  the  line.  So  I  knew  that 
many  poor  are  rich,  and  many  rich  are  poor.  It 
would  never  do. 

48 


LIFTERS  AND  LEANERS 

Then  once  more  I  tried  making  them  all  into 
either  those  that  were  "humble"  or  those  that 
were  "vain."  But  when  I  came  to  hunt  for  those 
I  thought  humble,  I  found  that  they  were  some  of 
the  proudest  of  the  proud,  and  those  that  I  had 
first  thought  vain,  were  among  the  humblest  of 
all.  But  after  much  thought  I  reached  the  mark. 
I  divided  my  people  into  the  "handle"  people  and 
the  "ladder"  people.  The  "lifters"  and  the 
"leaners."  For  this  little  handle  lifts  up.  And 
this  little  ladder  always  has  to  have  something 
to  lean  against  before  it  can  be  of  use.  Yes, 
boys  and  girls,  all  the  world  is  divided  into  those 
that  lift  and  those  that  lean.  They  may  be  happy 
or  sad,  rich  or  poor,  humble  or  proud,  good  or  bad, 
but  they  are  all  in  one  of  these  classes — those  who 
lift  up  others'  burdens,  or  those  that  have  to  lean 
upon  others. 

And  you  will  find  twenty  leaners  for  every  lifter. 
Now  are  you  a  lifter  helping  carry  another's  heavy 
load,  or  are  you  a  weak-kneed  leaner  putting 
your  load  on  others? 

When  we  were  boys  and  a  "feller"  leaned  on  us 
we  used  to  show  our  disdain  for  him  by  saying 
curtly,  "Lean  on  your  own  breakfast." 

So  does  the  world  speak  to  the  leaner.  Your 
value,  my  dear  Juniors,  will  be  measured  in  God's 
sight  and  man's,  by  your  power  to  bear  another's 
burden  and  not  by  the  way  you  have  of  making 
him  bear  yours. 

49 


INSULATED   CHRISTIANS 

Text — II  Cor.  6:  17.  "Wherefore  come  out  from  among 
them,  and  be  ye  separate,  saith  the  Lord,  and  touch  not  the 
unclean  thing;  and  I  will  receive  you." 

Objects — A  piece  of  insulated  telegraph  wire.  Strip  off 
some  of  the  coverings  of  the  insulation.   A  bit  of  crude  rubber. 

My  Dear  Young  Christians: 

I  hold  in  my  hand  here  a  bit  of  wire  used  in 
making  the  electric  connections  for  our  church 
organ.  You  will  see  that  I  have  stripped  off  some 
of  the  various  coverings  that  enfold  it,  in  order 
that  you  may  see  how  the  copper  wire  within  that 
carries  the  electric  current  is  so  protected  that 
it  may  not  be  brought  in  contact  with  anything 
that  would  rob  it  of  its  power.  Not  long  ago  I 
had  the  privilege  of  going  through  that  great  wire 
factory  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  where  much  of 
the  insulated  wire  used  in  electric  work  is  made. 
It  was  a  most  interesting  experience.  We  saw  the 
crude  rubber  such  as  I  hold  in  my  hand,  washed 
and  rolled  in  great  hot  rollers  till  it  was  quite  soft 
and  smooth,  then  mixed  again  and  again  in  other 
rollers  with  the  compound  that  made  it  fit  for 
wrapping  ;  then  cleaned  and  put  through  various 
processes  until  it  was  cut  in  strips  and  mechanically 
wrapped  about  the  copper  wire  that  already  had 
had  a  coating  of  cotton  thread.  Then  the  rubber 
coated  wire  was  beautifully  wrapped  by  a  lot  of 

50 


INSULATED  CHRISTIANS 

little  bobbins  in  just  the  style  that  you  boys  and 
girls  may  have  wrapped  a  Maypole,  only  a  hundred 
times  quicker,  and  better;  and  then  subjected  to 
a  dipping  in  a  coat  of  tar  preparation  to  keep  it 
from  the  weather.  Then  it  was  sent  down  to  the 
testing  room  to  be  tested.  A  long  tank  of  water 
charged  with  many  volts  of  electricity  through 
which  the  wire  was  drawn  revealed  its  weaknesses. 
For  if  there  was  a  spot  where  the  wrapping  was 
imperfect,  there  would  be  a  splutter  and  snapping 
and  a  beautiful  light  would  light  up  the  whole 
tank.  Where  the  weakness  occurred  the  place 
was  marked  and  the  wire  was  sent  back  to  the 
repair  shop  to  be  wrapped  by  hand  once  more. 

Singular  that  so  much  trouble  was  taken  with 
a  bit  of  wire,  isn't  it?  But  we  are  to  remember  that 
that  wire  would  carry  power,  and  that  in  the  carry- 
ing it  would  come  in  contact  with  many  things 
that,  being  conductors  as  we  call  them,  would  take 
away  its  power  and  so  rob  it  of  its  usefulness. 
Hence  all  the  trouble  that  was  taken  to  render  it 
"insulated"  or  separate. 

Now  there  are  such  things  as  "insulated 
Christians."  And  it  is  to  these  that  Paul  is  writ- 
ing when  he  says,  "Come  out  from  among  them, 
and  be  ye  separate,  .  .  .  and  touch  not  the  unclean 
thing."  The  man  or  boy  who  does  that  is  "insu- 
lated." Years  ago  in  the  history  of  Israel,  when 
the  people  of  God  had  gotten  so  mixed  up  with 
the  life  of  the  heathen  about  them  that  it  was  hard 

51 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

to  tell  which  were  and  which  were  not  God's 
people,  there  came  forth  a  sect  of  Nazarites, 
or  "separated  ones."  They  wore  long  hair  and 
drank  no  wine  and  kept  vows  of  purity  of  life,  to 
show  Israel  what  kind  of  people  God's  people  ought 
to  be.     They  were  "insulated  IsraeHtes." 

You  all  remember  John  the  Baptist  who  was 
a  "burning  and  shining  light"  for  Christ.  But 
you  cannot  be  a  burning  and  shining  light  unless 
like  the  great  electric  arc  lights  we  see  in  the 
streets,  you  are  insulated.  Now  John  the  Baptist 
was  insulated.  He  separated  himself  from  all  the 
wickedness  of  his  day,  living  in  the  wilderness, 
eating  locusts  and  wild  honey.  He  was  an 
"insulated  Christian."     Sometimes  we  sing: 

"  Jesus  bids  us  shine  with  a  clear  pure  light 
Like  a  little  candle  burning  in  the  night." 

God  has  made  you  boys  and  girls  the  wires  for 
the  carrying  of  light  and  love  to  others.  The 
Holy  Spirit  can  use  you  for  the  transmission  of 
his  power,  but  you  must  be  so  insulated  that  you 
will  avoid  touching  the  "unclean  thing  " — all  sins 
of  the  flesh  and  heart.  Now  the  church  and  the 
Sunday  school  are  like  a  great  insulated  wire  fac- 
tory, where  we  are  trying  so  to  fit  you  that  contact 
with  the  world  will  not  rob  you  of  your  power, 
and  I  am  hoping  that  when  the  test  is  made  all 
the  boys  and  girls  here  will  not  splutter,  nor  snap, 
but  will  be  proof  against  temptations. 

52 


THE  GIRL  ON  THE  PENNY 

Text — Isa.  49  :  i6.     "I  have  graven  thee  upon  the  palms 
of  my  hands." 
Object — A  penny. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

I  wonder  if  any  one  of  you  has  ever  seen  his 
picture  printed  in  the  daily  newspapers?  If  so 
what  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  it  has  given  you  and 
at  least  a  little  pride.  That  is,  if  the  picture  is 
not  a  woodcut,  which  some  wag  has  called  "the 
most  unkindest  cut  of  all."  I  think  you  know 
some  people  who  would  move  heaven  and  earth 
to  get  their  pictures  in  the  newspapers.  And  if 
you  have  ever  been  to  see  any  spot  that  is  partic- 
ularly historical  or  sacred,  you  will  find  the  names 
and  initials  of  a  host  of  silly  people  cut  in  the 
wood  of  the  bench  or  written  upon  the  walls. 
When  I  was  in  Shakspere's  birthplace  in  England 
last  summer  I  saw  a  ceiling  and  walls  in  one  of 
the  rooms  so  covered  that  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  put  another  name  there  without 
writing  over  two  or  three  others.  We  all  love 
notoriety  and  publicity  when  it  does  not  cost  us 
anything,  or  when  we  are  sure  it  will  not  ruin  our 
reputation. 

But  let  me  tell  you  of  a  little  girl  who  got  that 
publicity  and  notoriety  unsought,  and  whose  little 

53 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

face  was,  up  to  a  year  or  so  ago,  in  more  homes  in 
this  land  than  any  other.  Indeed  there  was  not 
a  home  of  even  the  poorest  that  was  not  glad  to 
look  upon  her  sweet  little  face.  Now  get  out 
your  pennies  and  see  if  you  have  one  with  the  head 
of  what  we  all  have  mistaken  for  an  Indian.  Yes, 
here  is  a  girl  that  has  one.  Now  look  sharp. 
Do  you  see  any  Indian  features  there?  Not  a  bit 
of  it.     Not  a  trace  of  them. 

It  is  the  head  of  a  gracious  American  woman, 
who  for  many  years  was  held  in  admiration 
both  for  her  beauty  and  her  goodness,  and 
who  only  a  few  weeks  ago  passed  on  to  her  great 
reward. 

Her  name  was  Keen — Sarah  Longacre  Keen. 
She  lived  in  Philadelphia.  For  thirty-five  years 
she  was  the  secretary  of  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of 
the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

When  Sarah  was  a  child  of  five  or  six  years  of 
age  a  delegation  of  Indians  from  the  northwest 
visited  Washington.  They  came  to  see  the  sights 
and  pay  their  respects  to  the  Big  Chief  of  the 
nation.  After  having  spent  considerable  time  at 
the  capital,  the  Indians  were  taken  to  Philadelphia. 
Here  they  were  shown  the  mint.  The  little  girl's 
father  was  a  fine  engraver,  and  he  had  official 
connection  with  this  great  money  factory.  He 
was  a  kindly,  benevolent  man  as  well,  and  he  in- 
vited this  delegation  of  red  men  to  some  sort  of 

54 


THE  GIRL  ON  THE  PENNY 

entertainment  at  his  home.  One  of  the  chiefs 
had  his  attention  attracted  to  the  little  miss,  and 
he  was  so  pleased  with  her  figure  and  maidenly 
bearing  that  in  a  mood  of  sportiveness  he  took  off 
his  headdress  and  put  it  on  her  head.  She  was 
not  frightened ;  but,  lending  herself  to  the  enjoyment 
of  the  joke,  she  stood  for  a  moment  and  let  the  com- 
pany look  at  her.  Some  one  present,  who  had 
both  an  eye  for  beauty  and  artistic  skill,  was  so 
struck  by  the  appearance  which  little  Sarah  Long- 
acre  made  in  her  Indian  hat  that  he  sketched  her 
on  the  spot.  The  sketch  was  engraved  by  her 
father. 

When  the  Government  wanted  a  new  face  to 
put  on  the  new  one  cent  pieces  they  chose  this 
engraving,  and  little  Sarah  Keen's  features  be- 
came the  best  known  face  in  America. 

But  there  is  a  far  better  place  than  a  cent  on 
which  our  names  and  faces  may  be  put,  and  put 
forever.  Our  text  tells  us  that  the  great  and  good 
God  promises  to  engrave  our  names  and  our  faces 
upon  the  palms  of  his  mighty  hands.  This  was 
his  promise  to  Israel.  So  dearly  did  he  love  his 
chosen  people  that  he  wished  to  have  them  in 
constant  remembrance,  and  so  put  their  names 
upon  the  palms  of  his  mighty  hands.  We  are 
all  aware  that  God  does  not  have  hands  like  man, 
but  it  means  that  so  dear  are  you  children  to  God 
that  he  keeps  you  in  constant  remembrance. 
Stop  and  think  what  the  "mighty  hand  of  God" 

55 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

hath  done  in  the  world  and  then  remember  that 
on  that  mighty  hand  the  names  of  God's  chosen 
ones  are  written. 

What  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  be  thus 
remembered?  This — that  we  in  turn  shall  bind 
God's  laws  upon  our  hands.  In  Deut.  6  :  8 
we  read,  "And  thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign 
upon  thine  hand."  Keep  God's  will  ever  before 
us  and  God  will  keep  us  ever  before  him. 


56 


NOT  SO  FUNNY  THEN 

Text — Luke  12  :  20. 
Object — A  toy  barn. 

My  Dear  Young  Christians: 

This  story  we  have  read  this  morning  was  told 
by  Jesus.  I  think  we  are  all  familiar  with  it. 
And  if  in  it  the  master  called  a  man  a  hard  name — 
thou  fool, — I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  he 
was  but  describing  the  character  of  the  man  and 
not  abusing  him.  He  was  a  man  who  forgot 
that  when  he  lay  down  at  night,  there  was  a 
possibility  of  his  dying  before  he  woke;  that  there 
was  a  chance  that  his  eyes,  which  had  closed  filled 
with  a  vision  of  his  worldly  goods,  might  open  in 
a  land  where  he  would  seek  for  those  same  barns 
and  corn  and  wheat  and  comforts  in  vain.  And 
if  that  man  had  known  that  he  would  die  he  would 
have  done  differently,  oh!  how  differently.  Some 
of  that  extra  corn  and  wheat  would  have  found  its 
way  into  the  larders  of  his  poor  neighbors.  And 
instead  of  eating  and  drinking  and  being  merry 
he  would  have  gone  out  into  the  highways  and 
hedges  and  bidden  some  poor  wanderer  to  come  in 
and  share  his  rich  fare.  Jesus  called  him  a  "fool" 
because  he  did  not  realize  that  he  might  die  before 
he  woke. 

57 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

I  suppose  there  is  not  a  boy  or  girl  here  to- 
day who  does  not  know  that  prayer  of  child- 
hood: "Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep,"  which  has 
in  it  this  little  "if"— "If  I  should  die  before  I 
wake." 

Little  Donny  was  kneeling  at  grandmother's 
knee,  and  saying  his  evening  prayer.  "  'F  I  should 
die  'fore  I  wake" 

"I  pray,"  prompted  a  gentle  voice.  "Go  on, 
Donny." 

"Wait  a  minute,"  interposed  the  small  boy, 
scrambling  to  his  feet,  and  hurrying  down  stairs. 
In  a  few  moments  he  was  in  his  place  again,  and 
dropping  on  his  knees  took  up  his  little  prayer  just 
where  he  had  left  it.  But  when  the  little  white 
gowned  form  was  safely  tucked  in  bed,  grandmother 
bent  over  and  questioned  him  lovingly  as  to  why 
he  had  faltered.  "But  I  did  not  think  what  I  was 
sayin,'  grandmother,  and  that's  why  I  had  to  stop. 
You  see  I  upset  Tod's  menagerie,  and  stood  all 
his  wooden  soldiers  on  their  heads,  just  to  see  how 
he'd  tear  round  in  the  morning.  But  if  I  should 
die  'fore  I  wake,  why — I  didn't  want  him  to  find 
them  that  way,  So  I  had  to  go  down  and  fix  'em 
right.  There's  lots  of  things  that  seem  funny  if 
you're  goin*  to  keep  on  livin'  but  you  don't 
want  'em  that  way  if  you  should  die  afore  you 
wake." 

I  think  we  all  think  alike  with  Donny.  And  I 
want  to  tell  you  young  people  a  few  of  the  things 

58 


NOT  SO  FUNNY  THEN 

that  we  want  to  set  right  in  case  we  should  die 
"afore  we  wake." 

First. — We  should  want  to  have  given  our  young 
hearts  to  Jesus.  ''If  I  should  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  take." 

If  we  want  Jesus  to  take  our  souls  into  his 
blessed  keeping,  we  must  give  them  to  him  to-day. 
It  will  be  too  late  when  we  have  gone  to  sleep. 
Say  now  while  we  are  awake : 

"  Jesus,  take  this  heart  of  mine, 
Make  it  pure  and  wholly  thine, 
Thou  hast  bled  and  died  for  me, 
I  would  henceforth  live  for  thee." 

Second. — We  should  want  to  put  back  that  penny 
that  we  took  off  mother's  bureau  the  other  day, 
and  which  has  burned  like  a  red  hot  coal  in  our 
conscience  ever  since.  We  should  want  to  take 
back  that  lie  we  told  to  father  when  we  looked  him 
square  in  the  eye  and  denied  our  guilt,  because 
we  could  not  bear  to  meet  Jesus  with  that  sin  un- 
confessed.  And  we  should  want  to  go  away  over 
to  Mary  Long's  and  take  back  that  unkind  thing 
we  said  about  her  the  other  day.  We  would  want 
to  make  all  these  things  right,  because  you  know 
they  seem  so  different  when  a  fellow  is  perhaps 
going  to  die  before  he  wakes. 

Third. — I  think  we  would  go  and  make  up 
with  Bill.  We  "had  it  out"  in  the  back  lot  last 
week  and  we  have  not  spoken  since,  but  Bill's  a 

59 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

"good  feller' '  and  if  we  are  not  going  to  live  forever, 
we  might  slip  away  without  "fixin'  it  up."  Yes, 
Juniors,  there  are  many,  many  things  that  do  not 
look  so  funny  "if  we  should  die  afore  we  wake." 
But  we  can  never  be  sure  of  that,  so  we  had  better 
begin  and  set  things  right  now. 


60 


PHCEBE 


Text— Rom.  i6  :  i. 
Object — A  cogwheel. 


My  Dear  Juniors: 

Like  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  I  want 
this  morning  to  commend  to  you  "Phoebe  our 
sister."  She  is  mentioned  only  once  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  only  to  tell  us  that  she  carried  a 
letter  from  Corinth  to  Rome.  A  small  matter 
you  say  to  make  her  name  memorable  wherever  the 
Bible  is  read.  But  though  she  carried  only  a  letter, 
just  think  what  a  letter  that  letter  was.  For  the 
piece  of  parchment  or  papyrus  which  she  so  care- 
fully carried  was  Paul's  great  letter  to  the  Romans, 
that  great  letter  in  which  is  set  forth  the  whole 
system  of  doctrine  which  we  as  Christians  believe 
concerning  our  salvation.  A  great  French  writer 
named  Renan  has  said  that  Phoebe  carried  the 
future  of  Christian  doctrine  with  her.  It  was 
only  one  thing  that  she  did,  and  we  never  hear  of 
her  again.  But  think  what  it  meant  for  the  church 
of  Christ,  and  think  what  it  meant  for  us  to-day. 
For  in  that  epistle  more  than  all  others  is  God's 
grace  revealed  to  us. 

I  have  here  in  my  hands  a  cogwheel  such  as 
they  use  in  mills. 

You  see  the  numerous  little  cogs  or  levers  that 
61 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATIOxN 

it  contains.  Now  as  the  wheel  revolves  against 
its  fellow  wheel  each  of  these  little  cogs  meets  and 
strikes  the  cog  in  the  other  wheel  but  once  in  each 
revolution.  Only  once,  but  if  that  little  cog 
failed  or  was  broken  it  would  throw^^  all  the 
machinery  out  of  gear. 

The  other  day  I  was  listening  to  a  symphony 
played  by  a  great  orchestra,  and  way  up  at  the 
back  of  the  stage  sat  a  man  with  a  pair  of  cymbals 
in  his  hands.  I  had  had  my  eye  on  him  for  a  long 
time  wondering  what  he  would  do  and  when  he 
would  do  it.  But  he  sat  as  still  and  motionless  as 
a  statue.  Suddenly  in  the  very  last  piece  of  music, 
as  the  volume  of  sound  swelled  great  and  greater, 
the  man  arose  and  brought  his  cymbals  together 
in  a  mighty  crash,  that  was  like  a  thunderclap, 
and  set  the  echoes  running  into  all  the  corners  of 
the  great  building. 

Only  once.  That  was  the  only  part  he  took  in 
the  whole  performance,  and  yet  without  that  one 
crash  of  cymbals  the  whole  would  have  been  ruined. 
The  most  extraordinary  band  is  that  in  the  Imperial 
Palace  at  Moscow  in  Russia.  In  this  band  each 
performer  plays  on  his  instrument  but  one  single 
note,  and  yet  so  perfect  is  the  skill  and  training  of 
these  men  that  they  produce  the  most  perfect 
harmony.  But  if  one  of  those  little  pipes  upon 
which  they  play  should  fail  to  blow  just  once, 
that  harmony  would  be  spoiled. 

All  these  illustrations  are  to  show  us  that 
62 


PHGEBE 

there  is  some  one  thing  for  each  of  us  to  do.  And 
that  if  we  do  not  do  that  one  thing  the  whole 
harmony  of  Hfe  will  be  spoiled.  It  may  be  that 
we  know  what  that  thing  is,  or  we  may  be  in  ig- 
norance of  it.  Therefore  the  safe  way  to  deal  with 
all  such  matters  is  to  do  the  very  next  thing  that 
is  asked  of  you  that  is  good,  and  believe  that  is 
the  one.  For  that  will  be  our  part.  Life  is  like 
a  great  machine  with  many  cogs  all  fitting  into 
one  another,  and  if  one  cog  fails  to  do  its  duty  all 
is  spoiled. 

The  great  church  of  Christ  is  composed  of 
"wheels  within  wheels,"  as  the  prophet  tells  us, 
and  if  the  smallest  of  these  wheels  shall  fail  the 
whole  great  machinery  of  the  church  loses  power. 
I  have  an  old-fashioned  music  box  at  home  that  is 
practically  ruined  because  one  little  cog  in  the 
great  wheel  attached  to  the  spring  failed  to  do 
its  part  and  the  other  cogs  slipped  against  the 
ratchet  and  were  hopelessly  broken  and  the  music 
stilled.  Boys  and  girls,  like  ''Phoebe  our  sister," 
learn  to  do  the  thing  that  God  has  given  you  in 
life  to  do  with  all  your  might.  You  will  never 
know  just  how  important  it  is. 

It  is  often  the  simplest  duties  that  prove  of 
greatest  worth  ;  I  commend  to  you  '*  Phoebe." 


PALMS   OR  GARMENTS? 

Text—Matt.  21:8.     Palm-Sunday  Address. 
Objects — A  palm  leaf  and  a  small  imitation  of  an  eastern 
tunic. 

My  Dear  Sons  and  Daughters  of  the  Tabernacle: 

This  is  Palm  Sunday,  and  this  beautiful  day 
brings  to  our  minds  that  other  lovely  spring  day 
in  Palestine,  when  Jesus  came  over  the  Judsean 
hills  into  his  city  of  Jerusalem  attended  by  the  great 
throng  of  Galilaeans,  who  with  shouts  of  *'Ho- 
sannah,"  preceded  and  followed  him  in  the  brief 
triumph  he  was  to  have  before  the  crucifixion. 

In  that  throng  were  a  crowd  of  children,  whom 
Jesus  afterwards  heard  singing  and  shouting  his 
praise  in  the  temple,  and  whose  loyalty  and  enthu- 
siasm Jesus  so  heartily  commended.  These, 
too,  joined  in  that  act  of  devotion  with  the  rest; 
some  tearing  off  branches  of  palm  and  strewing 
them  in  the  way  before  him,  and  others  taking 
off  their  outer  garments  and  spreading  them, 
like  carpets  of  royal  purple  before  a  king,  in  his 
onward  way.  Palms  or  garments  ;  which  are  you 
boys  and  girls  laying  before  him  to-day  ?  For 
each  of  these  indicates  a  different  degree  of  devo- 
tion and  love  for  Jesus.  The  garments,  of  course, 
were  the  most  costly.  Even  the  peasant  took 
great  pride  in  his  outer  garments,   which   were 

64 


PALMS  OR  GARMENTS? 

made  of  camel's  hair  or  goat's  or  lamb's  wool,  and 
were  the  most  expensive  article  of  dress  he  possessed. 
They  were  striped  brown  and  white,  or  blue  and 
white  and  must  have  presented  a  rather  pretty 
sight  when  the  different  colors  got  together  in  a 
great  crowd.  But  the  palm  branches  cost  them 
little.  The  trees  on  either  side  of  the  road  would 
furnish  these  for  the  simple  trouble  of  reaching  up 
and  breaking  them  off.  And  some  cast  their 
garments  in  the  way  and  some  only  palm  branches, 
and  bits  of  foliage.  Both  were  acts  of  devotion, 
but  one  showed  a  greater  devotion  than  the 
other. 

If  Jesus  should  ride  into  our  town  to-day,  would 
you  children  of  the  King  throw  down  your  best 
garments  under  his  feet  or  be  satisfied  to  give 
him  palm  branches  only? 

I  was  at  one  time  telling  some  boys  about  this 
scene  in  the  life  of  our  Master  when  one  of  them 
spoke  up  and  asked,  "If  they  put  their  coats 
down  on  the  ground  in  front  of  the  donkey  on  which 
Jesus  was  riding  didn't  the  donkey's  feet  make 
their  coats  dirty?"  Now  that  boy  had  grasped 
the  idea.  He  understood  what  some  of  us  over- 
look, that  it  cost  something  more  to  put  down  coats 
than  it  did  to  put  down  merely  branches. 

I  expect  that  that  donkey  was  not  too  careful 
where  he  stepped,  and  I  suspect  some  coats  got 
torn  and  dirty  that  day.  But  what  of  that? 
Jesus  was  honored  and  those  who  owned  them 

6  65 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

were  happier  far  for  the  patches  and  darns  they 
had  to  wear.  Think  of  having  a  coat  with  a  patch 
on  the  side  and  being  able  to  say,  "The  ass  on 
which  Jesus  rode  stepped  on  my  coat  just  here." 
What  would  we  give  for  a  coat  like  that  to-day? 
But  the  palm  wavers  would  find  that  their  palms 
would  wither,  and  they  would  have  little  to  be 
proud  of. 

On  this  day  when  we  celebrate  the  triumph 
of  Jesus,  both  in  going  into  his  city  of  Jerusalem, 
and  his  city  of  glory  above,  what  shall  our  offering 
be?  Shall  we  cast  down  only  palms  that  cost  us 
nothing,  or  shall  we  give  him  garments  that  are 
costly? 

Mrs.  Ballington  Booth  of  the  Volunteers  of 
America  tells  us  that  when  she  was  a  little  girl  she 
and  her  brothers  used  to  play  Noah's  Ark  and 
offer  the  animals  on  the  altar  in  sacrifice;  but  it 
was  always  the  broken  ones  that  were  offered. 

A  little  girl  who  was  the  daughter  of  a  minister 
had  been  to  church  one  morning  and  heard  the  min- 
ister pleading  for  an  offering  to  the  Lord  and  saying 
that  the  difference  between  an  offering  and  a 
collection  was  that  the  "offering"  was  what  we 
give  gladly  and  from  thoughtful  hearts  and  that 
the  "collection"  was  simply  what  we  happen  to 
have  left  in  our  pockets.  That  day  at  dinner 
her  little  dog  Fido  came  and  begged  piteously  for 
a  mouthful.  "No,  my  dear"  said  her  mother, 
"you  must  not  feed  Fido  now,  but  you  can  give 
G6 


PALMS  OR  GARMENTS  ? 

him  what  is  left  after  dinner."  So  after  dinner  she 
scraped  all  the  plates  and  found  only  a  few  chicken 
bones.  These  she  took  out  to  the  kennel  and  said 
sadly,  "Here,  Fido  dear,  I  wanted  to  give  you  an 
offering,  but  I  could  only  get  a  collection." 

I  wonder  how  many  of  us  to-day  are  simply  giv- 
ing to  Jesus  what  costs  us  little,  what  we  happened 
to  have  left  over.  Let  us  take  off  our  costly 
garments,  the  things  we  value  truly,  and  give  them 
as  offerings  to  our  triumphing  King  Jesus. 


67 


THE  CRYING  STONES 

Text — Luke  19  :  40.     Palm-Sunday  Sermon. 
Object — A  bit  of  stone  taken  from  some  noted  church,  or 
any  bit  of  stone. 

My  Dear  Little  Pilgrims: 

I  hold  in  my  hand  to-day  a  bit  of  the  marble 
taken  from  the  floor  of  St.  Peter's  Cathedral  while 
it  was  being  repaired.  It  is  one  of  the  "stones  of 
the  temple"  of  which  Jesus  is  speaking  in  our  text 
this  morning.  Not  of  the  original  temple  but  of 
a  great  house  of  God  in  Rome.  You  all  recall  on 
this  Palm  Sunday  that  wonderful  entry  of  Jesus 
into  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  and  how  the  great 
multitudes  that  had  accompanied  him  from 
Galilee  and  those  that  had  come  out  to  meet  him 
as  he  rode  in  lowly  state  on  the  little  ass,  had  torn 
the  branches  from  the  trees  and  cast  their  garments 
in  his  path  crying  out,  "Hosannah  to  the  son  of 
David."  Now  in  that  crowd  were  many  children 
and  with  all  the  enthusiasm  with  which  you  boys 
and  girls  follow  a  great  procession  these  children 
had  kept  up  that  cry  long  after  they  had  entered 
the  city  gates  and  even  the  temple  itself.  The 
scribes  and  Pharisees,  annoyed  at  both  the  children's 
crying  in  the  temple  and  the  nature  of  their  cry, 
ordered  Jesus  to  rebuke  them,  as  they  had  asked 
him  to  rebuke  his  disciples.     Matthew  and  Luke 

68 


THE  CRYING  STONES 

tell  us  what  Jesus  said  in  reply.  Matthew  says 
he  said,  "Hear  what  these  say."  Luke  says  he 
said,  "If  these  should  hold  their  peace  the  very 
stones  would  cry  out.'*  And  what  he  meant  was 
just  this — if  you  do  not  let  these  boys  and  girls 
worship  me  here  in  God's  holy  temple,  the  very 
stones  that  are  in  the  floors  and  in  the  walls  of 
the  temple  itself  will  cry  out  in  their  stead. 

What,  then,  can  we  learn  as  our  Palm-Sunday 
lesson  from  these  words  of  Jesus? 

First. — That  Jesus  must  have  worship.  His 
life  is  such  that  he  requires  it.  He  is  so  worthy 
of  it  that  it  must  come.  In  that  wonderful  picture 
in  John's  Book  of  Revelation  the  great  hosts  of 
heaven  cry,  "Worthy  is  the  Lamb  ...  to  receive 
power,  and  riches  and  wisdom,  and  strength,  and 
honor,  and  glory,  and  blessing." 

The  very  nature  of  Jesus  and  his  glorious  kingly 
character  demand  praise. 

Second. — We  are  to  learn  that  it  is  most  natural 
that  boys  and  girls  should  praise  him.  The  old 
gray-bearded  scribes  and  the  haughty  wrinkle- 
faced  old  Pharisees,  who  had  forgotten  all  about 
how  it  feels  to  be  a  boy,  thought  not,  but  Jesus 
knew  better.  For  Jesus  knew  all  about  children, 
because  he  lived  much  with  them  and  loved  them. 
He  had  not  forgotten  his  own  boyhood  and  how 
he  loved  to  shout  and  run  and  play.  He  knew 
that  God  had  made  these  children's  mouths  to 
praise  him.     And  more  than  that,  he  knew  that 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

God  gets  the  most  perfect  of  all  praises  from  you 
boys  and  girls,  for  in  the  eighth  Psalm  we  read, 
"Out  of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  he 
hath  perfected  praise." 

Third. — We  must  learn  that  if  you  children  do 
not  praise  him,  lifeless  objects  will.  The  stones 
will  cry  out.  It  was  an  old  proverb,  written  by 
Habbakuk,  that  Jesus  was  quoting.  "For  the 
stones  shall  cry  out  of  the  wall " — .  And  you  boys 
and  girls  who  remember  your  Bible  stories  will 
remember  how  those  very  stones  cried  out  when 
Jesus  was  crucified  and  again  when  Jerusalem 
was  taken  by  her  enemies. 

To-day  in  the  East  they  are  digging  down 
into  buried  cities  and  coming  upon  stones  with 
inscriptions  that  are  proving  the  truth  of  so  much 
that  Jesus  said  and  taught.  These  stones  are 
praising  him.  Shall  children  be  worse  than  sticks 
and  stones  and  senseless  things?  All  nature  this 
beautiful  Sunday  of  palms  is  lifting  up  its  voice 
to  praise  our  King.  Shall  we  not  join  created 
things  in  adding  our  praise?  Jesus  loves  to  hear 
your  voices  in  the  sanctuary.  He  loves  to  see 
you  in  the  church.  You  may  praise  him  as  loud 
as  you  will,  and  there  will  be  no  gray-bearded 
Pharisee  to  stop  you.  Learn,  then,  to  come  to 
this  temple  which  we  have  erected  here  in  which 
to  worship  our  King  and  Saviour. 


70 


HOW  JESUS  CAME  DOWN  THE  STAIRS 

Text— Phil.  2  :  6-9. 

Objects — A  pair  of  stairs  made  of  cardboard  with  the  treads 
of  the  steps  removable  and  on  which  the  followim?  words 
have  been  written:  "  In  the  Form  of  God,"  "  Humbled  Him- 
self," "Took  Upon  Him  the  Form  of  a  Servant,"  "  Likeness 
of  Men,"  "  Obedient  Unto  Death  "  and  at  the  foot  of  the 
stairs  a  small  cross. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

This  week  we  shall  be  thinking  continually  of 
the  death  of  Jesus  in  our  behalf.  And  we  shall 
value  that  death  of  Jesus  for  us  much  more  highly 
if  we  know  just  what  it  cost  him  to  come  to  this 
earth  at  all  and  still  more  what  it  cost  him  to  die 
on  the  cross.  In  the  verses  of  Paul's  letter  to  the 
Philippians  which  I  have  read  to  you  just  now, 
we  find  a  picture  of  a  pair  of  steps,  and  those  of 
the  boys  and  girls  who  have  eyes  that  see  things 
and  minds  that  discern  things  have  perhaps 
already  seen  that  picture.  But  that  you  may 
better  see  it,  I  have  brought  these  little  stairs 
to-day.  And  we  will  build  anew  the  steps  down 
which  the  Saviour  came  from  his  home  in  glory 
that  he  might  be  our  Saviour.  Let  us  then  lay 
upon  the  topmost  stone  this  step,  the  step  where 
Jesus  stood  when  he  began  to  come  down.  ''  In 
the  form  of  God.'*  Now  we  believe  that  Jesus  was 
of  the  same  divine  substance  as  God,  but  we  are 

71 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

told  here  that  he  was  also  in  the  form  of  God. 
So  that  he  was  just  like  God.  What  a  glory  that 
was  for  the  Master.  He  and  his  Father  were  one. 
He  held  the  highest  place  then  in  the  universe, 
when  he  began  to  descend  to  us  poor  sinners. 

Then  we  lay  for  the  first  step  down  this  truth, 
"iJ^  humbled  himself''  He  laid  aside  the  form  of 
God  which  had  been  his  prize  and  glory.  He  did 
what  it  is  so  hard  for  us  all  to  do.  He  humbled 
himself.  We  all  love  ourselves  and  our  own  com- 
fort and  honor  so  much  better  than  we  love  all 
else.  But  Jesus  took  the  first  step  down — he  hum- 
bled himself. 

Then  we  put  on  the  next  step — "  Took  upon  him 
the  form  of  a  servant.'''  Servant  here  means  slave. 
Think  of  it,  boys,  think  of  it,  girls.  This  Jesus, 
the  Son  of  God  and  equal  with  him,  took  the  form 
of  a  slave.  That  means  that  he  took  upon  him 
all  the  things  that  make  a  slave  a  slave,  that 
make  a  slave  a  servant.  He  whom  angels  served, 
was  now  to  serve  like  a  slave  in  the  service  of 
men.     That  is  coming  down  somewhat,  isn't  it? 

Now  put  on  the  next  step  down — '^Likeness  of 
men.'*  Still  he  descends,  going  farther  and  farther 
down  the  stairs  of  his  humiliation.  Up  to  this 
point  he  might  have  retained  his  heavenly  form, 
even  while  he  was  serving  men,  for  we  are  told 
that  angels  become  the  ministers  of  men.  But 
Jesus  came  way  down  to  our  level.  He  became 
one  of  us.     He   was  made    like  man,  born  in  a 

72 


HOW  JESUS  CAME  DOWN  THE  STAIRS 

lowly  manger  of  a  lowly  mother,  one  of  the  weakest 
of  weak  little  babes. 

Once,  so  we  are  told,  King  Henry  VIII,  went 
and  slept  all  night  in  the  little  square  prison  in 
London  which  they  called  the  ''Chicken  Compter," 
where  they  put  men  who  stole  their  neighbors' 
chickens,  to  know  how  it  felt  to  the  imprisoned 
ones.  But  he  got  out  next  day.  But  Jesus  came 
and  took  all  our  sorrow  into  his  own  life. 

There  is  another  step — ''Obedient  unto  death^^ 
and  just  at  the  bottom  of  the  last  stair  we  will 
place  this  little  cross,  for  it  was  death  upon  the 
cruel  cross  to  which  our  Master  became  obedient. 
"I  do  not  mine  own  will  but  the  will  of  him  that 
sent  me,"  he  said.  Do  you  know  what  it  means 
to  be  thus  obedient  unto  death?  You  know  what 
it  is  to  obey  to  give  up  some  cherished  pleasure, 
don't  you?    But  not  to  death. 

Once  there  was  a  mountain  prince  in  the  far 
East  who  was  at  war  with  the  reigning  king,  and 
when  the  king  demanded  his  surrender  the  prince 
called  one  of  his  men  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
emissary  ordered  him  to  plunge  a  dagger  into  his 
own  heart.  This  the  soldier  did  and  fell  dead  at 
his  master's  feet.  Then  said  he  to  the  emissary, 
"Go  back  and  tell  your  king  that  I  have  a  thousand 
men  like  that."     Obedient  unto  death. 

So  Jesus  our  Master  came  all  the  way  down  the 
stairs  from  heaven  to  earth  to  die  for  you  and  for 
me.     What  will  you  do  for  him  to-day? 

73 


HOW  TO  SEE  THE  RISEN  JESUS 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

On  this  bright  Easter  Day,  while  we  are  all  think- 
ing of  the  risen  Jesus,  I  have  a  question  to  ask  you. 
And  because  I  do  not  believe  you  can  answer  it, 
I  am  going  to  answer  it  myself. 

Who  saw  Jesus  rise?  Do  you  know?  We  see 
him  laid  away  in  the  tomb,  the  great  stone  rolled 
against  the  rock-hewn  cave,  the  seal  of  Rome 
placed  upon  it,  the  guard  of  soldiers  set,  and  then 
suddenly  we  find  him  talking  to  Mary  outside  the 
tomb. 

Who  saw  him  shake  off  the  graveclothes  of  death 
and  come  forth?  The  only  possible  witnesses  of 
whom  I  can  think  at  this  moment  were  the  angels; 
but  they  came  down  to  roll  the  stone  away  and  to 
warn  the  women,  only  after  Christ  had  risen,  and 
when  the  grave  was  already  empty,  so  they  did 
not  see  him  rise. 

The  women — these  came  to  the  tomb  very  early, 
but  they  found  the  grave  already  empty. 

The  soldiers — but  the  stone  was  there  before  the 
tomb  till  the  angel  came,  and  after  that  they  were 
so  frightened  that  they  fainted  and  saw  nothing. 

Who  then  saw  him  come  forth?  No  one.  Then 
how  do  we  know  that  he  did?    We  have  ample 

74 


HOW  TO  SEE  THE  RISEN  JESUS 

proof  that  he  came  forth  In  the  way  he  appeared 
to  many  of  those  that  loved  him.  To  those  sorrow- 
ing disciples  that  loved  him  he  showed  himself. 
"Then  were  the  disciples  glad  when  they  saw  the 
Lord."  Now  doesn't  it  seem  a  little  strange  to 
you  boys  and  girls  that  these  disciples  did  not  get 
that  joy  sooner?  It  might  have  come  to  them  if 
they  had  obeyed  him.  For  Jesus  had  bidden  them 
meet  him  in  Galilee  saying,  "But  after  that  I  am 
risen,  I  will  go  before  you  into  Galilee."  And  his 
first  message  to  the  women  had  been,  "Go  quickly, 
and  tell  his  disciples  that  he  is  risen  from  the  dead ; 
and,  behold,  he  goeth  before  you  into  Galilee;  there 
shall  ye  see  him:  lo,  I  have  told  you." 

But  instead  of  obeying  him  and  going  into  Galilee, 
they  stayed  sadly  in  Jerusalem,  and  for  twenty- 
four  hours  they  missed  the  greatest  joy  in  all  the 
world. 

Now  what  can  we  get  out  of  all  this? 

Jesus  appeared  to  men's  physical  eyes.  He 
showed  himself  to  the  women,  to  the  two  that 
were  going  home  to  Emmaus  that  sad  night, 
to  Thomas  the  doubter,  to  the  five  hundred 
brethren  at  once. 

Jesus  appeared  in  visions  to  many  of  those  that 
loved  him,  to  their  mind's  eye.  He  showed  himself 
to  the  mind's  eye  of  Paul  on  the  way  to  Da- 
mascus, to  the  Apostle  John  at  Patmos,  to 
Francis  of  Assisi,  and  Joan  of  Arc,  and  Catherine 
of  Sienna. 

75 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

He  appeared  also  by  his  spirit  to  the  heart's 
eye  of  those  that  loved  him.  "Did  not  our  heart 
burn  within  us,  while  he  talked  with  us  by  the 
way,"  said  John  and  Cleopas. 

While  none  of  us  can  have  the  first,  and  few 
of  us  will  have  the  second,  we  can  all  have  the 
third  method  of  seeing  the  risen  Jesus.  We  can 
all  be  sure  this  glad  Easter  Day  that  he  is  risen, 
by  seeing  him  with  our  spiritual  eyes.  Jesus  said 
to  the  disciples,  **Go  ye  into  Galilee  and  you  shall 
see  me  there."     He  says  so  to-day. 

Where,  then,  is  the  Galilee  where  we  can  go  and 
see  Jesus?  Just  where  he  reveals  himself.  Now, 
Jesus  reveals  himself  In  the  Bible.  "These  are 
they"  says  he  of  the  Scriptures,  "that  testify 
of  me."  Jesus  is  in  this  Bible.  If  you  take  him 
out  you  will  have  little  left.  You  can  see  him  in 
the  closet  where  you  go  to  pray.  You  cannot  talk 
to  a  dead  Christ.  And  if  you  get  an  answer  to 
your  prayers  as  I  am  sure  you  all  do  when  you  pray 
aright,  then  he  must  be  there  in  heaven.  If  I  go 
to  the  telephone  and  get  no  answer  from  the  other 
end,  I  hang  up.  But  if  I  am  sure  there  is  some  one 
there  I  keep  on  talking.  You  can  see  Jesus  in 
the  lives  of  others.  That  is  a  Galilee.  In  that 
beautiful  "Legend  of  Sir  Launfal"  the  knight 
sees  Christ  in  the  leper.  We  see  Jesus  when  we 
are  ministering  to  others. 

Then,  too,  you  will  see  Jesus  when  you  keep  his 
commandments.    Jesus  himself  promised,  "  He  that 

76 


HOW  TO  SEE  THE  RISEN  JESUS 

hath  my  commandments,  and  keepeth  them,  he  it 
is  that  loveth  me  :  and  I  will  .  .  .  manifest  myself 
unto  him."  But  the  disciples  did  not  obey,  and 
they  lost  that  vision  for  twenty-four  sad  hours. 

Would  you  boys  and  girls  like  to  see  the  risen 
Jesus  with  your  hearts'  eyes?  Then  go  to  Gali- 
lee, the  Galilee  of  the  Bible  —  prayer,  service, 
obedience — and  he  will  show  himself  unto  you. 


77 


JESUS,  THE  GARDENER 

Text— John  20  :  15. 

Objects — Flowers  and  gardening  implements. 

Jesus  once  said  to  Simon  of  Capernaum  concern- 
ing Mary  Magdalene,  "She  that  hath  been  most 
forgiven  will  love  the  most"  and  Easter  morning 
showed  that  saying  of  Jesus  to  be  true.  For  it 
was  Mary  who  when  the  others  had  gone  away 
from  the  tomb  of  Jesus,  stood  looking  anxiously 
into  the  empty  vault  and  would  not  give  up  till 
she  had  found  him.  It  was  to  this  love,  too,  that 
Jesus  manifested  himself.  If  you  would  see  Jesus, 
my  young  friends,  you  must  learn  to  love  him, 
for  you  remember  that  since  he  died  he  never  has 
shown  himself  to  those  that  did  not  love  him. 

Mary  first  sees  the  angels,  and  then  turning  she 
sees  Jesus  himself  standing.  But  so  greatly  have 
his  resurrection  garments  and  glory  changed  him 
that  at  first  she  does  not  know  him.  She  takes 
him  for  the  keeper  of  the  garden  in  which  the  tomb 
was, — "she,  supposing  him  to  be  the  gardener 
saith."  It  was  natural  she  should  be  so  mistaken. 
It  was  a  garden,  we  are  told,  in  which  the  new  tomb 
was.  In  these  days  we  do  not  make  cemeteries 
out  of  our  gardens,  but  we  try  our  best  to  make 
gardens  out  of  our  cemeteries.     We  cover  them 

78 


JESUS.  THE  GARDENER 

with  flowers  and  the  cruel  gash  that  the  grave  has 
made  we  cover  up  with  flowers  of  every  sort. 

There  was  no  place  for  graves  in  the  world  at 
first,  only  for  gardens.  God  made  the  garden  in 
Eden,  and  then  sin  came  along  and  carved  a  grave 
where  Cain  buried  his  slain  brother. 

But  the  day  will  come  again  when  there  shall  be 
no  more  graves,  but  only  gardens  once  more. 
Christ  will  come  again  and  level  up  the  graves  and 
plant  flowers. 

Mary  found  no  beauty  In  the  garden  while  the 
grave  was  in  it. 

It  was  a  beautiful  spring  morning  and  being  in 
the  month  of  Nisan,  the  flower  month,  the  garden 
I  imagine  was  filled  with  flowers  of  all  sorts,  and 
seeing  a  man  standing,  she  naturally  thought  it 
was  he  who  cared  for  the  garden,  and  she  so 
addressed  him. 

But  she  soon  found  when  he  spoke  the  loving 
words  to  her,  that  it  was  Jesus.  And  yet,  boys 
and  girls,  I  do  not  think  she  was  much  mistaken 
after  all.  "She,  supposing  him  to  be  the  gardener'* 
— well,  is  not  that  just  what  Jesus  was  and  is? 

This  bright  Easter  Day  we  have  banked  our 
churches  with  flowers  to  make  them  look  like 
gardens,  and  as  we  gaze  upon  their  beauty,  I  want 
you  to  think  with  Mary  that  Jesus  is  a  gardener. 

We  have  thought  of  him  as  many  things.  He 
said  he  is  "The  Door."  He  said  he  is  "The  Shep- 
herd," "The  Light  of  the  World,"  but  many  artists 

79 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

have  thought  of  him,  too,  as  a  gardener  and 
represented  him  with  such  instruments  as  these 
in  his  hands. 

"She,  supposing  him  to  be  the  gardener."  Why 
was  she  right? 

First. — Because  it  was  he  by  whom  God  made  all 
things.  He  was  the  power  by  whom  God  made 
this  world.  "  Without  him  was  not  anything  made 
that  was  made."  And  the  first  thing  we  hear 
about  God  was — that  he  was  a  gardener. 

The  first  story  of  God  in  the  Bible  tells  us  that 
he  planted  a  garden  called  Eden;  he  filled  it 
with  all  possible  beauty  and  loveliness,  and  that 
he  gave  it  to  an  under  gardener  to  till  and  take  care 
of,  named  Adam.     God  loves  gardens,  and  flowers. 

"  The  Lord  God  planted  a  garden 

In  the  first  white  days  of  the  world; 
And  set  there  an  angel  warden 
In  a  garment  of  light  unfurled. 

"The  kiss  of  the  sun  for  pardon, 
The  song  of  the  birds  for  mirth; 
One  is  nearer  God's  heart  in  a  garden, 
Than  anywhere  else  on  earth." 

Second. — Because  Jesus  sends  all  the  flowers 
that  bloom  in  your  garden  and  mine.  Have  you 
never  seen  him  walking  in  your  garden,  as  Adam 
saw  God  walking  in  his  garden  of  Eden  at  the  close 
of  the  day? 

He  plants  the  seeds,  and  waters  them.  He  brings 
the  rain  and  the  dews,  the  sunshine  and  the  showers 

80 


JESUS.  THE  GARDENER 

Upon  them.  Sometimes  we  think  we  are  making 
things  grow.  We  trim  and  we  cultivate  with  our 
rakes  and  hoes  and  scissors,  but  it  is  Jesus  after 
all  that  gives  them  life.  For  he  is  the  author  of 
all  life. 

"  We  plow  the  fields  and  scatter  the  good  seed  in  the  land, 
But  it  is  fed  and  watered  by  God's  own  loving  hand. 
He  sends  the  snow  in  winter,  the  warmth  to  swell  the  grain. 
The  breezes  and  the  sunshine  and  soft  refreshing  rain." 

In  one  of  the  beautiful  Old  Testament  poems, 
Jesus  is  spoken  of  as  "My  beloved  who  is  gone 
down  into  his  garden  ...  to  gather  lilies."  These 
beautiful  Easter  plants  are  his  handiwork  as  the 
gardener.  And  Mary  could  have  seen  the  Saviour 
in  no  more  beautiful  form  than  that  of  a  gardener. 

Third. — Then  Jesus  is  a  gardener  I  think  because 
he  has  opened  the  gates  of  Paradise  to  all  believers. 
When  he  threw  open  the  tomb  in  that  beautiful 
eastern  garden  and  threw  down  its  stone,  he  opened 
the  gate  into  heaven.  It  is  through  that  gate  we 
go  into  the  most  beautiful  garden  of  all. 

The  Greek  word  for  heaven  is  "Paridiso,"  which 
means  a  garden. 

The  followers  of  Mohammed,  the  Mussulmans, 
think  of  heaven  as  a  beautiful  garden  where  bloom 
all  the  most  lovely  of  flowers  and  where  flow  the 
most  beautiful  of  streams.  And  isn't  that  just 
the  picture  which  John  gives  us  of  heaven?  A 
lovely  city  with  a  great  park  in  the  center,  through 
which  flows  the  river  of  the  water  of  life  and  where 

6  81 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

the  tree  of  life  is  blooming  constantly.  After  that 
beautiful  resurrection  morning,  Jesus  went  up 
through  the  heavens  into  the  heavenly  paradise  of 
God.  And  he  tells  us  that  he  is  the  keeper  of 
that  garden.     *'  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you." 

Fourth. — Then  I  think  Jesus  is  a  gardener  because 
he  keeps  the  garden  of  rest  and  peace.  A  garden 
in  the  East  is  a  type  of  restfulness.  The  gardens 
were  filled  with  shade  trees  and  flowers,  beautiful 
grasses  and  fountains  and  ponds.  Here  men  went 
in  the  cool  of  the  day  or  even  in  the  midst  of  its 
noontide  heat  to  rest.  You  remember  how  Christ 
saw  Nathanael  when  he  was  under  the  fig  tree 
resting  in  the  heat  of  the  day. 

The  Master  who  rose  from  the  dead  has 
prepared  peace  and  comfort  and  rest  for  those  that 
come  to  him.  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 
Now  his  resurrection  on  that  Easter  morning  proves 
to  us  that  all  the  promises  he  made  are  true.  For 
the  greatest  promise — that  of  his  rising — has  been 
fulfilled,  and  so  we  are  at  liberty  to  believe  all  the 
others  he  made  us. 

So,  when  he  tells  us  we  may  come  into  his  garden 
of  rest,  we  can  accept  the  invitation  and  go.  How 
we  love  to  creep  away  from  the  heat  of  the  hot 
city  in  summer  time  and  get  into  the  shade  of 
some  little  garden.  So  Jesus  says  when  we  are 
weary  and  oppressed,  we  can  come  to  him  and  he 
has  provided  a  place  of  comfort. 

82 


JESUS,  THE  GARDENER 

When  my  soul  is  faint  and  thirsty, 
'Neath  the  shadow  of  his  wings 

There  is  cool  and  pleasant  shelter 
And  a  fresh  and  crystal  spring." 


Fifth. — He  is  the  gardener  because  he  raises 
flowers  that  we  can  plant  in  our  cemeteries  to  make 
gardens  out  of  them.  How  we  love  to  decorate 
the  graves  of  our  dead.  If  you  go  into  the  cemeteries 
in  June  they  look  just  like  rose  gardens.  But 
these  flowers  are  only  types  of  the  real  flowers  we 
plant  on  a  Christian's  grave. 

Jesus,  the  gardener,  had  some  flowers  growing  in 
that  garden  in  Jerusalem  that  were  the  real  flowers 
of  blessing  to  plant  in  our  cemeteries.  Here  are 
some  of  them.  There  is  the  flower  of  hope.  That 
grew  out  of  Jesus'  tomb.  Before  that  time  men 
had  hopelessly  laid  their  dear  ones  in  the  grave. 
But  now  we  know  that  we  may  live  again  because 
he  lives.  Then  there  is  the  flower  of  faith.  We 
need  never  fear  that  he  in  whom  we  believed  will 
fail,  after  he  has  conquered  death.  We  can  say 
with  Paul,  *T  know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  am 
persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I 
have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day." 
And  he  said  we  should  see  our  dear  ones  again. 
Then  there  is  the  flower  of  recognition.  We  fear 
sometimes  we  shall  not  know  our  dear  ones  in 
heaven. 

But  Jesus  knew  Mary,  and  Mary  at  last  knew 
Jesus. 

83 


WIIAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

We  have  this  blessed  assurance  that  just  as 
Mary  knew  Jesus,  not  so  much  by  his  outward 
appearance  as  his  voice  and  manner,  so  though 
our  bodily  form  shall  be  changed  we  shall  know 
each  other. 

I  have  in  my  hand  a  lily  bulb.  If  I  plant  it,  I 
shall  get  something  so  beautiful  and  sweet  that 
it  has  nothing  of  the  old  dirty,  rough  bulb  about 
it,  but  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  say  it  is  a  lily,  and 
I  shall  recognize  it  at  once.  So  when  the  great 
Gardener  plants  us  in  the  Christian's  grave,  we  shall 
come  forth  in  such  manner  that  all  those  who  have 
known  the  seed  will  recognize  the  flower. 

Sixth. — Then  lastly  I  think  we  can  think  of 
Jesus  as  a  gardener  because  it  is  he  alone  that 
plants  in  us  the  seed  that  will  give  us  eternal  life. 
"In  him  was  life,"  says  John.  It  was  the  life 
that  he  received  from  God,  his  Father,  that  brought 
him  as  a  flower  from  the  grave  where  they  had 
buried  his  body.  By  that  life  that  God  put  in 
him  he  came  forth  from  the  grave,  to  be  the  first 
fruits  of  them  that  sleep. 

That  life  Jesus  puts  in  each  of  us  who  accepts 
him.  It  is  that  germ  of  eternal  life  that  gives 
us  hope  of  rising. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  a  seed,  dry  and  apparently 
lifeless.  Yet  I  can  plant  it  with  the  assurance 
that  it  will  send  forth  its  tiny  shoot  and  finally 
blossom;  Seeds  have  been  found  in  mummy 
cases  in  Egypt  that  were  old  in  the  days  of  Moses, 

84 


JESUS,  THE  GARDENER 

but  when  planted  have  put  out  roots  and  grown 
green.  And  every  little  seed  has  this  persevering 
germ  of  life.  Once  that  mighty  oak  tree  was  a 
little  speck  so  small  that  you  could  not  see  it  with- 
out the  microscope.  Now  if  we  love  Jesus,  he  puts 
his  life  in  us  and  that  life  that  he  put  in  us  can 
never  be  destroyed.  He,  like  the  gardener,  will 
cultivate  and  keep  it  alive,  and  when  we  are  put 
into  the  grave  that  bit  of  Christ's  life  will  be  power- 
ful enough  to  break  the  grave  and  bring  us  forth. 

Here  is  a  story  to  show  you  what  I  mean. 

An  infidel  German  countess,  more  than  a  century 
ago,  when  dying,  ordered  that  her  grave  should  be 
covered  with  a  solid  granite  slab;  that  around 
this  should  be  placed  solid  rocks,  and  that  the 
whole  should  be  clamped  together  with  iron  bands. 
And  she  had  this  inscription  put  on  the  stone, 
"This  burial  place,  purchased  to  all  eternity, 
must  not  be  opened."  A  little  seed  however, 
sprouted  inside  the  tomb,  pushed  its  tiny  shoots 
out  through  a  crack  and  gradually  growing  burst 
the  iron  clamps  and  lifted  the  immense  block. 
Such  a  seed  of  life  has  the  Gardener  planted  in  the 
hearts  of  those  who  will  accept  him  and  love  him. 
So  for  all  these  reasons  I  think  Mary  was  right 
that  day  after  all,  and  that  she  supposed  nothing 
but  the  truth. 

Jesus  is  the  keeper  of  our  soul  garden  and  some 
day  he  will  bring  us  full  of  blooms  and  beauty  into 
his  palace. 

85 


''GETTING  ONTO  HIS  CURVES" 

Text— Eph.  6:  II. 

Objects — A  baseball  and  bat. 

My  Dear  Boys: 

The  baseball  season  Is  upon  us  and  the  fever  is 
burning  in  the  breasts  of  every  manly  boy  of  us. 
I  must  confess  that  we  preachers  are  not  proof 
against  this  dread  infection  that  comes  with  the 
robins  and  the  hand  organs.  And  if  we  made  a 
frank  confession  to  you  fellows,  we  would  tell  you 
that  we  long  sometimes  to  get  away  from  the  odor 
of  our  library  shelves,  and  get  out  with  the  boys 
on  the  diamond. 

I  presume  that  every  boy  has  been  saving 
up  for  bat  and  ball  and  studying  the  pedigree 
of  every  new  player  on  the  professional  teams. 
The  latest  news  that  has  come  to  me  from  the 
diamond  is  that  some  one  has  Invented  a  brand  new 
curve,  that  is  going  to  puzzle  the  batters  this 
year  and  win  glory  for  its  inventor.  That  re- 
calls to  me  the  days  when  before  most  of  you 
were  born,  we  used  to  sit  by  the  hour  and  discuss 
the  weighty  question  whether  or  not  a  baseball 
could  be  made  to  curve,  while  I  have  spent  many 
hours,  as  a  boy,  trying  to  throw  a  ball  between 
two  upright  poles  planted  at  about  twenty  yards 
apart. 

86 


••GETTING  ONTO  HIS  CURVES" 

To-day  we  know  that  most  games  of  baseball 
have  come  to  be  pitchers'  battles. 

Now  Satan  our  great  adversary  is  engaged  in  a 
mighty  struggle  with  every  man  of  you,  and  he 
is  depending  upon  throwing  curved  balls  over  your 
home  plate.  Paul  talks  to  us  in  this  letter  to  the 
Ephesians  about  the  "wiles"  of  the  Devil.  But 
if  Paul  knew  baseball  as  well  as  he  did  boxing  he 
would  have  told  you  to  beware  of  the  "curves" 
of  the  Devil.  Instead  of  saying  "beware  of  the 
wiles  of  the  Devil"  he  would  have  said  "get  onto 
the  Devil's  curves,"  for  his  wiles  are  his  curves 
and  his  curves  are  his  wiles.  There  is  little  that  is 
straight  about  our  enemy  Satan.  He  never  fights 
in  the  open.  He  uses  curves  and  deceit.  He  never 
throws  a  straight  ball. 

Yes,  boys,  and  girls  too,  you  must  become 
familiar  with  the  methods  of  the  evil  one  lest  he 
take  you  unawares. 

First  of  all  Satan  is  so  knowing.  For  six  thou- 
sand years,  and  nobody  living  knows  how  many 
more,  he  has  been  going  up  and  down  this  world 
practicing  every  kind  of  curved  device  and  crooked 
business  that  he  might  put  you  out  of  the  game  of 
life.  And  you  can  begin  your  battle  with  him  con- 
fident that  he  knows  far  more  than  you.  Beware! 
Then  he  can  make  things  appear  other  than  they 
are.  You  remember  how  through  the  influences  of 
Satan  the  Egyptian  magicians  could  make  their 
sticks  seem  like  snakes  after  Moses  had  by  God's 

87 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

help  made  his  rod  turn  into  a  real  snake.  He  has 
ever  gone  about  blinding  the  eyes  of  the  men  and 
women  of  this  world  to  the  truth.  He  is  called 
the  "Father  of  Lies,"  that  "Old  Serpent,"  "The 
Deceiver." 

In  the  northeast  corner  of  the  great  Yellowstone 
Park  there  is  a  gloomy  ravine  which  is  known  as 
Death  Gulch.  At  the  foot  of  the  mountain  slopes 
there  is  a  stream  impregnated  with  sulphate  of 
alumina,  which  is  death  to  all  animal  life.  A  recent 
visitor  saw  there  a  number  of  bears  lying  dead 
about  this  stream,  having  been  killed  by  drinking 
the  water.  Sin  has  its  Death  Gulch,  and  how 
many  men  and  women,  and  boys  and  girls  too,  are 
first  fascinated,  and  then  killed  by  its  fatal  stream. 
It  seems  to  invite  them,  but  it  means  to  blind  and 
slay. 

Satan  never  comes  in  his  true  form.  For  this 
reason  we  must  be  doubly  watchful.  He  comes 
often  disguised  as  an  angel  of  light.  An  old 
Scotchman  gazing  once  at  Ary  Schaefer's  picture 
of  the  Temptation  of  the  Master,  which  represents 
Satan  in  a  peculiarly  repulsive  form,  said,  "If 
Satan  had  come  to  me  in  that  form  I  would  have 
given  him  his  death  blow  too."  But  the  unfortunate 
part  of  it  all  is  that  he  does  not.  To  Eve  he  came  in 
the  insinuating  and  sneaking  method  of  the  snake. 
There  is  a  pretty  little  plant  that  grows  on  the 
moors  of  England  called  the  sundew.  Its  leaves 
are  soft  and  velvety  and  attract  the  insects  to 


"GETTING  ONTO  HIS  CUIIVES" 

them,  but  are  filled  with  tiny  hairs  which  when 
touched  cause  the  plant  to  close  up,  and  the  luck- 
less insect  becomes  a  victim  of  the  sundew's 
wiles.     So  does  Satan  attract  us. 

We  must  remember  last  of  all  that  none  has 
ever  been  able,  among  the  strongest  of  the  sons 
of  men,  unaided,  to  resist  him.  Noah,  Lot,  Abra- 
ham, Moses,  Peter,  all  have  fallen  a  prey  to  the 
wiles  of  the  Devil. 

But  there  is  One  who  knows  him  thoroughly. 
The  Master  of  men  is  the  Master  of  Satan.  "In 
that  he  himself  hath  suffered  being  tempted,  he  is 
able  to  succor  them  that  are  tempted."  Let  the 
Master  teach  you,  and  help  you  that  when  Satan 
throws  his  curves  over  your  home  plate,  you 
won't  strike  out. 


LESSONS  OF  THE  TARGET 

Object— A  target  such  as  is  used  for  air  rifles  or  archery. 

My  Dear  Young  Soldiers: 

You  will  all  recognize  this  thing  which  I  hold 
in  my  hand.  Many  times  have  Bill  and  Jim  tried 
for  the  bull's-eye  in  a  target  like  this.  Do  not  be 
satisfied  till  you  hit  it,  boys. 

One  of  the  presidents  of  the  London  Chamber  of 
Commerce  once  wrote  out  these  two  principles  of 
success : 

1.  Have  a  definite  aim. 

2.  Go  straight  for  it. 

Dr.  Henry  van  Dyke  has  written : 

Life  is  an  arrow,  therefore  you  must  know 
What  mark  to  aim  at,  how  to  use  the  bow. 
Then  draw  it  to  the  head,  and  let  it  go. 

Let  us  look  a  moment  at  those  two  principles  of 
the  target. 

First. — Have  a  definite  aim.  If  I  were  to  select 
for  you  one  of  the  mightiest  epoch-making  events 
in  history,  I  think  I  should  choose  that  moment 
when  the  great  Apostle  Paul  said  on  the  Damascus 
road,  "What  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?"  Or 
better  still  a  scene  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
when  the  young  Jesus  said  to  his  anxious  parents, 
"Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's 
business?  "     Or  better  still  the  moment  when  that 

90 


LESSONS  OF  THE  TARGET 

same  Jesus  stood  before  Pilate  and  said,  "For  to 
this  end  came  I  into  the  world."  For  both  Jesus 
and  Paul  had  a  definite  aim  in  their  lives  that 
changed  the  world.  The  sad  thing  about  so  many 
young  lives  is  that  they  are  going  on  without  a 
definite  aim.  Not  so  the  great  men.  You  re- 
member well  what  Columbus,  amid  all  the  dis- 
couragement of  that  voyage  of  his  to  America, 
wrote  in  his  diary:  "That  day  we  sailed  .  .  .  west- 
ward ,  which  was  our  course.'' *  Keeping  everlastingly 
at  our  work  is  not  enough.  We  must  have  a  goal 
toward  which  we  are  going,  a  target  toward 
which  we  aim  the  arrow  of  life.  Amos  R.  Wells 
tells  us  that  he  once  saw  a  sign  in  England  that 
read,  "T.  Baffin,  dealer  in  anything  and  every- 
thing." I  fear  Mr.  Baffin  never  got  very  rich  or 
prominent. 

Do  you  sturdy  young  fellows  know  where  you 
are  marching  to?  Do  you  dear  girls  know  toward 
what  you  are  going?  I  hope  it  is  toward  a  con- 
secrated Christian  life. 

Second . — Go  straight  for  it.  ' '  Then  draw  it  to  the 
head" — says  Dr.  Van  Dyke.  Pull  your  arm  way 
back,  let  that  arrow  fly  as  if  you  meant  it  to  reach 
its  mark.  Plan  your  work,  and  then  work  your  plan. 
Benjamin  Franklin  once  said,  "Resolve  to  per- 
form what  you  ought;  perform  without  fail  what 
you  resolve."  Be  like  John  Hay's  Jim  Bludsoe — 
"He  seen  his  duty  a  dead  sure  thing,  an'  went 
for  it  thar  and  then." 

91 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

Don't  ever  be  satisfied  till  you  hit  that  bull's- 
eye;  tin  the  bell  rings.  Now  Paul's  mark  was 
Jesus.  '*  I  press  toward  the  mark  for  the  high 
calling  of  Jesus,"  he  tells  us.  There  is  no  higher 
and  better.  Aim  to  be  a  true  Christian.  Don't 
be  satisfied  with  anything  less. 

Remember  that  to  miss  that  mark  is  to  sin. 
Not  all  sin  is  transgression.  Paul's  idea  of  sin 
was  also  expressed  In  the  Greek  word  "hamartano" 
which  literally  means  to  miss  the  mark,  to  come 
short.  To  come  short  of  a  Christian  life,  my  dear 
young  soldiers,  Is  to  sin — to  be  found  faulty.  Aim 
high  then  to-day.  Take  Jesus  and  a  Christian 
life  as  the  target  toward  which  your  arrow  of  life 
is  directed,  and  then  pull,  pull,  till  you  can  pull  no 
more  and  let  it  fly.  And  some  day  when  you  go 
to  look,  you  will  find  that  arrow-life  of  yours  sunk 
deep  and  firm  into  the  life  of  Christ. 


92 


THREE   FLOWERS   OF   FREEDOM 

Objects — A  rose,  a  Mayflower  and  a  lily. 

My  Dear  Young  Soldiers  of  the  Cross: 

I  have  brought  you  to-day  a  Memorial-Day 
bouquet.  For  to-morrow  we  shall  observe  that 
beautiful  custom  of  placing  flowers  on  the  graves 
of  the  soldiers  who  have  died  defending  the  flag, 
or  in  the  service  of  this  country.  The  custom  which 
we  all  remember  from  childhood,  originated  in 
the  South  after  the  war  when  the  southern  women 
carried  flowers  out  to  lay  on  the  Confederate 
graves.  And  it  was  taken  up  soon  by  all  the 
states  of  the  Union.  The  date  of  May  30  was 
decided  upon  because  that  day  marked  the  muster- 
ing out  of  the  last  soldier  of  the  Civil  War,  when 
North  and  South  were  at  last  at  peace. 

Tradition  has  it  that  '*  after  the  last  battle  fought 
in  England  in  behalf  of  the  Stuarts  there  sprang 
up  on  the  spot  on  Culloden  Moor  a  singular  blue 
flower  unknown  in  that  region  before.  The  natives 
call  it  the  'flower  of  Culloden,'  because  it  sprang 
from  the  soil  made  sacred  with  the  blood  of  their 
kin.  They  believed  that  seeds  that  had  been  long 
unfruitful,  lying  sleeping  in  the  ground,  when 
watered  by  the  blood  of  the  braves  sprang  suddenly 
into  life  and  grew  and  bloomed."     But  they  were 

93 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

costly  flowers,  were  they  not?  These  flowers  that 
you  will  lay  upon  the  graves  of  the  soldier  dead  of 
our  great  Republic  will  be  flowers  like  those  of 
CuUoden.  Flowers  of  sacrifice.  Flowers  that  are 
due  to  bloodshed. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  three  such  flowers,  three 
flowers  of  freedom,  that  have  always  cost  the  shed- 
ding of  blood.     They  are  the  flowers  of  sacrifice. 

First. — Here  is  the  beautiful  red  rose.  Its 
color  speaks  of  blood.  It  is  the  flower  of  national 
liberty.  Such  liberty  is  costly  always.  Its 
price  is  always  sacrifice,  and  some  one  has  had  to 
pour  out  life's  blood,  and  some  hearts  have  had  to 
break  before  liberty  ever  came  to  a  nation  or  to 
its  people.  I  suppose  most  of  you  boys  and  girls 
have  been  out  to  Valley  Forge  and  seen  the  graves 
of  the  Continental  soldiers  who  died  of  hunger  and 
privation  in  that  awful  winter,  and  have  been  able 
to  fancy  you  could  see  the  footmarks  of  blood 
near  the  sentry  houses. 

Those  of  you  that  have  read  your  American 
histories  know  that  there  were  three  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  brave  men  killed  in  the  Civil  War. 
The  red  rose  of  freedom  has  grown  out  of  blood. 
We  should  value  it  so  highly  that  never,  never 
should  we  carelessly  throw  it  away. 

Second. — Then  here  is  the  pale  blue  Mayflower, 
the  flower  of  religious  liberty.  Was  it  not  singular 
that  those  who  traveled  the  high  seas  years  ago 
to  find  in  this  land  of  ours  religious  freedom  should 

94 


THREE  FLOWERS  OF  FREEDOM 

have  come  in  a  ship  called  the  "Mayflower." 
That  little  flower  whose  blue  speaks  to  us  of  con- 
stancy, and  truth,  and  sincerity,  and  whose 
energy  in  pushing  out  of  the  snow  of  winter  to  give 
us  its  beauty  and  fragrance  is  so  typical  of  the 
loyalty,  and  courage  of  our  Pilgrim  fathers.  True 
blue  is  this  little  flower.  And  this  flower  of  re- 
ligious liberty  cost  something.  Isn't  it  strange, 
young  people,  that  one  should  have  to  purchase 
the  freedom  to  worship  God  with  one's  blood. 
And  yet  it  has  so  often  been  true.  From  the  days 
of  the  Christian  martyrs  in  the  Colosseum  at 
Rome  to  the  days  of  the  Scotch  men  and  women 
who  lost  their  lives  for  their  faith  in  the  days  of 
the  Covenanters,  it  has  been  necessary  at  times 
to  buy  one's  right  to  worship  God  as  they  willed 
at  the  price  of  blood.  It  is  a  lesson  to  us  to  value 
the  freedom  we  have  of  worship  and  make  use  of 
that  freedom. 

Third. — And  lastly  here  is  the  pure  white  lily. 
This  is  also  a  flower  of  freedom.  It  represents  to 
us  to-day  the  freedom  from  sin  and  all  uncleanness, 
which  was  purchased  by  our  blessed  Saviour  when 
he  shed  his  life's  blood  on  the  cross.  This  lily 
of  freedom  from  sin  grew  up  pure  and  spotless  and 
fragrant  at  the  foot  of  the  cross  of  the  Master. 
"The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin." 
Sin  is  slavery.  He  that  committeth  sin  is  the 
slave  of  sin,  says  the  Bible.  And  we  are  not  too 
young  to  have  felt  that  slavery.     But  it  also  tells 

95 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

US  that  "If  the  Son  shall  make  you  free,  ye  are 
free  indeed."  And  he  made  us  free  from  sin  by 
his  blood. 

Memorial  Day  brings  us  the  lessons  of  sacri- 
fice. Here  are  the  red,  white  and  blue, — the 
flowers  of  true  liberty,  liberty  of  citizenship, 
liberty  of  religion,  freedom  from  sin.  And  they 
all  cost  something  called  blood — and  blood  is  the 
life.     So  then  let  us  treasure  them  as  never  before. 


96 


INVISIBLE  ENEMIES 

Object — A  microscope  or  magnifying  glass. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

One  day  last  week  I  heard  a  boy  say,  "What  you 
don't  know,  won't  hurt  you."  It  is  a  poor  kind 
of  philosophy,  for  some  of  the  things  we  know 
least  about  hurt  us  most.  So  also  is  it  with  the 
things  we  see.  When  I  was  a  little  shaver,  I  used 
to  pull  the  bedclothes  about  my  head  as  mother 
turned  down  the  light,  believing,  as  the  ostrich  be- 
lieves, that  what  I  did  not  see  would  not  hurt  me. 

There  was  once  a  great  English  scientist  who  put 
some  water  from  the  dirty,  though  sacred.  River 
Ganges  under  a  microscope,  and  then,  calling  a 
high  caste  Brahmin,  let  him  look  through  and  see 
all  the  horrible  infusoria  and  microbes  of  disease 
that  swarmed  in  it.  But  the  Brahmin,  used  to 
bathing  in  these  holy  waters  and  terrified  by  what 
he  saw,  broke  the  microscope  and  went  on  bathing 
as  before.  He  believed  that  what  one  does  not 
see  is  harmless. 

What  I  wish  to  tell  you  to-day  is  that  it  is 
the  very  things  that  one  does  not  see  that  are  the 
most  harmful. 

If  we  were  traveling  through  the  jungles  of 
Africa  we  would  be  always  on  the  lookout  for 
tigers,  but  would  be  utterly  careless  of  the  harm- 

7  97 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

less  mosquito.  When  we  were  boys  we  often  heard 
it  said  in  reference  to  another's  want  of  courage — 
"Oh,  he's  afraid  of  a  mosquito."  But  that  is  no 
longer  a  sign  of  cowardice,  but  of  common  sense, 
for  the  innocent  looking  mosquito  is  far  more 
terrible  than  the  roaring  tiger.  And  the  greatest 
men  of  science  to-day  have  come  to  be  in  constant 
terror  of  the  mosquito,  because  he  carries  the 
dreaded  germ  of  yellow  fever. 

It  is  a  queer  thing,  is  it  not,  that  the  more  in- 
visible things  are  the  more  terrible  and  dangerous 
do  they  come  to  be.  A  wild  tiger  is  not  so  dangerous 
as  a  common  house  fly,  because  we  can  see  the 
tiger  and  we  cannot  always  see  the  fly,  and  the 
fly  can  carry  typhoid  fever  enough  with  him  to 
kill  an  army. 

There  are  some  things  that  are  invisible  to 
the  naked  eye,  like  the  tiny  microbes,  that  we  can 
see  through  the  microscope,  and  shun  them. 
But  there  are  still  more  terrible  things  we  cannot 
see  even  through  the  microscope.  And  the  smaller 
and  more  invisible  they  are  the  more  dangerous 
do  they  seem  to  be. 

No  one  yet  even  with  the  most  powerful  micro- 
scope has  seen  the  microbes  or  germs,  as  we  best 
know  them,  of  the  three  terrible  and  fatal  diseases 
of  hydrophobia,  of  yellow  fever,  or  of  poliomyelitis, 
which  is  a  big  word  for  a  sort  of  spinal  meningitis. 
One  noted  professor  tells  us  that  he  believes  the 
eye  is  not  constructed  that  will  ever  see  them. 

98 


INVISIBLE  ENEMIES 

Yet  these  three  things  are  more  fatal,  and  carry- 
off  more  lives  than  all  the  tigers  and  lions  of  India. 

So  it  is  the  little  things  after  all  which  we  can- 
not see  that  are  to  be  the  most  feared. 

Now  let  us  get  our  lesson.  You  boys  and  girls 
cannot  see  the  harm  in  staying  out  late  at  night, 
and  so  you  believe  there  is  no  such  harm.  But 
mother  and  father  have  been  looking  through  the 
microscope,  called  their  experience,  and  they  have 
seen  the  harm.  It  is  too  bad  you  cannot  see  it, 
but  you  will  some  day  and  you  must  take  their 
word. 

You  boys  cannot  see  the  harm,  perhaps,  that 
lurks  in  the  evil-smelling  cigarette,  but  it  is  there, 
the  doctors  have  found  it.  It  is  more  dangerous  than 
wild  beasts.  You  cannot  always  see  why  you  should 
not  stay  away  from  church  and  why  mother  insists 
on  your  coming  here.  But  there  is  a  danger  every 
time  you  stay  away  from  God's  house.  Those  who 
have  wandered  away  from  God  have  seen  it  and 
can  tell  you.  So  let  others  be  your  microscopes, 
and  believe  what  they  say  when  they  tell  you  that 
there  are  a  hundred  and  one  things  the  harm  of 
which  you  cannot  see,  and  beware  of  them  lest 
they  spoil  your  young  lives. 


99 


HOW  TO  TELL   POISONS 

Text— I  Thess.  5:21.    "  Prove  all  things." 
Objects — A  piece  of  poison  ivy  and  Virginia  creeper,  a 
mushroom  and  a  toadstool. 

My  Dear  Young  Naturalists: 

I  have  with  me  to-day  some  of  nature's  products 
with  which  we  are  all  familiar.  This  piece  of 
vine  which  I  am  holding  is  the  Virginia  creeper 
that  climbs  over  the  porches  and  fences  and  stone 
walls,  and  this  other  piece  which  you  will  see  I 
am  holding  with  a  glove-covered  hand  is  very 
similar,  and  yet  essentially  different.  And  the 
fact  that  I  hold  it  with  a  gloved  hand  shows  us 
that  it  is  a  dangerous  bit  of  leaf.  It  is  the  poison 
ivy  from  which  so  many  of  us  have  suffered  at 
one  time  or  another.  And  this  object  which  I 
now  hold  up  is  a  mushroom,  one  of  the  most 
delectable  articles  of  food  for  the  epicures.  The 
other  looks  just  like  it,  but  looks  are  deceitful,  and 
we  must  not  be  deceived  because  he  looks  like  his 
cousin.  This  other  fellow  is  quite  a  different 
character.  Should  we  eat  him,  I  fear  we  would 
miss  church  services  for  some  days  to  come,  and 
perhaps  we  should  miss  them  forever.  It  is  the 
toadstool.  Only  this  past  summer  fifteen  persons 
in  New  York  City  died  from  eating  toadstools 
in  mistake  for  mushrooms.  Now  the  important 
100 


HOW  TO  TELL  POISONS 

thing  is  to  know  these  fellows  apart.  It  seems  that 
they  resemble  one  another  perfectly,  and  yet  there 
is  a  most  marked  difference.  The  difference 
between  the  poison  ivy  and  the  Virginia  creeper  is 
that  the  poison  ivy  has  but  three  fingers  and  the 
creeper  has  five.  You  can  always  tell  it  if  you 
know  the  difference  of  those  two  fingers.  And  as 
to  the  mushrooms,  you  will  always  find  that  he 
has  a  solid  stem,  that  the  under  portion  of  his  um- 
brella is  pink,  and  that  you  can  peel  the  outer  skin 
off.  While  his  cousin,  the  toadstool,  is  generally 
of  hollow  stem,  has  a  white  umbrella  and  you  can- 
not peel  the  top  off.  God  has  put  these  differences 
between  the  hurtful  and  the  helpful,  and  if  we 
would  live  our  lives  in  comfort  and  yet  enjoy  God's 
provision  for  us  in  nature,  we  must  be  careful  to 
know  these  differences  which  exist. 

There  are  in  like  manner  habits  and  methods 
of  living  of  which  these  several  objects  are  illustra- 
tions. 

These  habits  and  methods  of  life  seem  all  alike 
to  many.  They  have  an  innocent  look  to  those 
who  are  not  watchful  and  we  are  apt  to  be  deceived 
and  poisoned  by  them. 

What  I  want  you  to  remember  is,  that  as  in 
the  case  of  the  things  I  have  shown  you,  the 
difference  J  while  seemingly  slight,  can  always  be 
detected.  And  it  is  our  business,  boys  and  girls, 
to  detect  it  before  we  get  poisoned  by  them. 

These  differences  are  generally  in  some  little 
101 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

matter  that  it  takes  a  good  clear  eye  to  see,  and 
one  that  has  practiced  seeing  such  things  to  avoid 
them.  There  is  something  there  that  ought  not 
to  be  there,  or  there  is  something  not  there  that 
ought  to  be  there,  that  makes  the  difference,  and 
renders  one  harmful  and  the  other  helpful. 

God  has  given  us  an  eye  to  see  just  these 
differences  in  pleasures,  and  habits  and  ways  of 
doing  things,  and  that  eye  we  call  "conscience." 
If  you  were  going  out  hunting  for  mushrooms  you 
would  have  your  eyes  "peeled"  as  we  say;  keen 
and  watchful  to  see  the  difference  between  mush- 
room and  toadstool.  And  if  you  were  getting 
over  a  wall  you  would  be  watchful  to  see  if  the 
pretty  vine  growing  upon  it  had  five  fingers  or 
three.  So  must  the  eye  of  our  conscience  be  bright 
and  constantly  on  the  watch  for  these  differences 
between  good  and  bad. 

In  chemistry  they  use  a  paper  called  "litmus" 
which  put  in  acid  instantly  determines  its  acidity. 
The  jeweler  has  his  touchstone  for  determining 
gold.  So  conscience  determines  in  the  pleasures 
and  habits  of  our  lives  the  good  and  the  bad.  In 
the  bank  of  England  there  is  a  machine  that  with 
unerring  accuracy  weighs  the  coin  throwing  out 
those  which  are  under  weight.  Just  so  our  con- 
sciences tell  us  the  differences,  however  slight  they 
may  be,  between  the  good  and  the  bad.  Some  of 
the  things  we  like  in  life  and  should  not  have, 
look  just  like  things  we  like  and  may  have.  We 
'      • .    102 


HOW  TO  TELL  POISONS  ^' 

must  follow  our  conscience  carefully.  We  must 
get  to  know  the  difference  between  playing  golf 
and  playing  golf  on  God's  holy  day. 

We  must  come  to  know  the  difference  between  a 
Christmas  cantata  and  a  cheap  vaudeville  show 
in  a  theater. 

You  must  see  the  difference  between  saying 
"let's  pretend"  when  you  are  playing,  and  "let's 
pretend"  when  mother  has  asked  you  a  point 
blank  question  that  demands  the  truth. 

Conscience  will  tell  you  all  these  differences 
if  you  will  follow  it  and  keep  it  without  offense. 
For  the  aim  of  us  all  should  be  with  Paul  to  try 
always  to  have  "a  conscience  void  of  offense  before 
God  and  man."  Prove  all  things,  Juniors,  for 
you  have  the  proof  in  your  own  hearts  where  God 
has  placed  it  for  your  safety. 

Do  not  eat  anything  until  you  have  proved  it 
good  for  your  body. 

And  do  not  do  anything  until  you  have  proved  it 
good  for  your  soul. 


103 


BUBBLE  HONORS 

Text — Hosea  lo  :  7;  Ps.  91  :  14. 

Objects — A  soap  bubble  pipe  and  some  water  for  blowing 
bubbles. 

I  wonder  how  many  of  you  boys  and  girls  before 
me  to-day  ever  wished  that  you  were  kings  or 
queens  or  at  least  princes  and  princesses?  You 
are  not  much  like  the  general  run  of  boys  and  girls 
if  you  haven't  sometime  or  other  curled  yourselves 
up  in  father's  big  armchair  and  with  your  fairy 
book  on  your  knees  wished  that  you,  too,  might  sit 
on  a  royal  throne  and  dictate  orders  to  men-  and 
women-in-waiting  and  never,  never  go  to  bed  until 
you  wanted  to. 

How  we  all  are  looking  for  honors!  How  we 
love  to  be  even  in  the  company  of  great  men! 
How  our  young  bosoms  swell  with  pride  if  only 
we  can  shake  hands  with  some  great  one!  Why, 
I  remember  even  to-day  the  swellings  of  boyish 
pride  with  which  I  shook  hands  once  with  General 
Burnside,  and  heard  him  say  to  father,  "That 
boy  has  a  good  grip."  Or  how  grand  we  feel 
when  some  noted  man  or  woman  answers  a  little 
letter  that  we  have  written  him  or  her! 

But  here  is  a  king  to  whom  all  kinds  of  honors 
are  due,  and  yet  Hosea  the  Prophet  tells  him  that  his 
honors  are  like  a  bubble  upon  the  waters.  I  want 
104 


BUBBLE  HONORS 

to  speak  to  you  to-day  young  people  on  "Bubble 
Honors"  and  as  I  blow  this  airy  bubble  look  well 
at  it. 

See  first — how  pretty,  how  attractive  a  thing  it 
is.  Reflecting  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  it 
mirrors  all  the  beauties  of  this  room  in  which  we 
are. 

But  see  now — how  empty  a  thing  it  is.  I  prick 
it  with  this  pin  and — splutter! — it  is  gone.  Gone 
where?  Into  the  empty  air  from  whence  it  came; 
for  it  is  after  all  but  a  breath.  Ages  ago  a  very 
wise  and  thoughtful  man  wrote  in  the  pages  of 
this  blessed  Bible  we  study,  "Vanity  of  vanities, 
.  .  .  all  is  vanity,"  and  if  you  could  read  the 
language  in  which  that  was  written  you  would  see 
that  what  the  great  wise  man  said  was  this,  "A 
breath  of  breaths,  all  being  but  breath."  He  was 
speaking  of  the  honors  of  the  world. 

I  wonder  if  you  ever  read  that  pretty  story  of 
the  little  beggar  who  changed  places  with  the  little 
prince,  and  how  sick  and  tired  that  little  beggar 
grew  of  the  fuss  and  feathers  of  the  royal  court, 
and  how  anxious  he  was  to  get  back  to  the  gutter. 
Now  notice  also  that  these  bubbles  are — blown 
up  with  wind.  The  wind  that  blows  up  some  honors 
that  men  have  is  often  their  own.  They  blow 
themselves  up  with  pride  and  self  praise  until  they 
often  burst.  ^sop  tells  us  in  his  fables  of  the 
frog  who  wanted  to  be  as  large  as  the  bull,  and  he 
puffed  and  puffed  his  little  self  until  he  burst. 
105 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

And  sometimes  these  honors  are  blown  up  for  us 
by  our  friends.  There  was  always  room  in  the 
great  Greek  Pantheon,  or  temple  of  all  the  gods, 
for  any  deity  who  had  followers  enough  to  erect 
his  statue  there.  And  generally  you  can  find  some 
one  who  will  praise  you. 

But  we  find  at  last  that  these  bubble  honors  are 
easily  burst,  and  short-lived. 

What  then  are  the  honors  that  last?  They  are 
named  in  the  ninety-first  Psalm,  "Because  he  hath 
set  his  love  upon  me,  ...  I  will  set  him  on  high, 
because  he  hath  known  my  name."  It  is  the  King 
of  kings  who  is  speaking  of  those  of  you  that  love 
him.  He  will  set  you  "on  high,"  and  he  will 
answer  you.  How  nice  to  get  an  answer  from 
a  great  man. 

Here  is  an  answer  from  the  King  of  kings:  "I 
will  honor  him."  He  whom  God  honors  is  hon- 
ored indeed. 

The  honors  that  God  gives  are  permanent. 
We  prick  the  bubble  and  the  "bubble  honor," 
and  both  return  to  the  air.  But  the  Father  says, 
"With  long  Hfe  will  I  satisfy  him."  The  little 
kings  of  China  and  Persia  will  keep  their  honors 
at  longest  but  about  sixty  years,  and  like  most 
monarchs  will  not  be  satisfied.  But  you  little 
kings,  who  are  God's  children  will  have  an  eternity 
of  glory.  "Seekest  thou  great  things  for  thyself? 
Seek  them  not." 


106 


THE  THREE  SIEVES 

Text— Ps.  39  :  I. 

Objects — Three  sieves  with  tags  appended  reading  respect- 
fully, "  Is  it  true?"  "  Is  it  kind?  "  "  Is  it  necessary?  " 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

To-day  as  I  came  Into  the  church  I  heard  a  group 
of  the  young  ladies  of  our  Junior  Congregation 
talking  together  about  another  young  lady  of  this 
same  Congregation,  and  from  what  I  could  gather 
the  remarks  were  not  altogether  complimentary. 
And  I  wondered  if  the  remarks  of  these  young 
ladies  in  question  could  be  put  through  the  three 
sieves.  Now  you  are  already  guessing  what  those 
three  sieves  are.  They  are  the  sieves  through 
which  all  our  tales  of  others  should  be  made  to 
pass  before  we  repeat  them.  For  just  as  flour  is 
sifted  again  and  again  before  it  is  fit  to  go  out  into 
our  homes  and  be  made  into  nourishing  bread,  so 
must  our  tales  about  others  be  sifted,  before  they 
are  fit  to  be  retold  and  made  public  property. 

Learn  then,  my  dear  Juniors,  to  put  all  such  tales 
about  others  through  the  three  sieves  which  I  shall 
show  you.  If  they  fail  to  pass  through,  then  never 
tell  them.  Lock  them  up  in  the  secret  places  of 
your  hearts  and  memories  and  put  a  ball  and  chain 
on  them  lest  they  should  escape  and  do  much 
harm.  The  first  sieve  is  that  which  bears  the  label 
"Is  it  true?" 

107 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

"Oh,  mother,  "cried  Mabel,  "I  heard  such  a 
tale  of  Edith  Howard,  I  never  knew  she  was  such 
an  old  sneaking" — 

"My  dear,"  replied  her  mother,  "Go  get  the 
sieve  number  one,  and  let  us  see  if  it  will  go 
through." 

"Yes,"  said  Mabel,  "it  will.  Nellie  Jones  told 
me  all  about  it  and  she  saw  her  do  it." 

"Well,"  said  mother," try  the  next  one."  (Hold 
up  sieve  whose  label  reads,  "Is  it  kind?") 

Now,  Juniors,  what  do  you  think  Mabel  found? 
Would  it  pass  that  sieve  or  not?  There  are  times 
when  it  is  kindness  to  tell  people  of  their  faults. 
But  it  is  scarcely  ever  kind  to  tell  others  about  them. 

But  if  Mabel  had  succeeded  in  getting  her  story 
through  the  second  sieve,  would  it  ever  have  gotten 
through  the  third?  (Sieve  with  label  reading, 
"Is  it  necessary?") 

Is  it  ever  necessary  to  tell  tales  of  others?  Some- 
times, but  very  seldom.  And  never  for  the  mere 
pleasure  of  telling  a  tale.  And  never  unless  the 
tale  will  pass  through  the  three  tests  which  we  have 
assigned  them  to-day.  David  knew  what  sorrow 
comes  into  tender  hearts  and  how  much  disgrace 
is  brought  on  the  name  of  God  by  children  of  his 
that  tell  useless  and  unkind  tales  of  others.  And 
so  he  wrote,  "  I  will  take  heed  to  my  ways,  that  I 
sin  not  with  my  tongue:  I  will  keep  my  mouth 
with  a  bridle,  while  the  wicked  are  before  me." 


108 


THE   LION,  THE   BEAR  AND   THE 
SERPENT 

Text — Amos  5  :  19.  "As  if  a  man  did  flee  from  a  lion,  and 
a  bear  met  him;  or  went  into  the  house,  and  leaned  his  hand 
on  the  wall,  and  a  serpent  bit  him." 

Objects — Large  pictures  of  lion,  bear,  and  snake. 

My  Dear  Churchgoers: 

Here  is  a  funny  text.  You  didn't  know  it  was 
in  the  Bible,  did  you?  Well,  you  are  not  more 
ignorant  than  the  grown  people  here  this  morning, 
because  they  did  not  know  it  either,  most  of  them. 

I  have  here  in  my  hand  a  large  picture  of  a  lion, 
a  bear  and  a  serpent,  which  correspond  to  the  three 
animals  mentioned  in  this  peculiar  text.  There 
is  a  tale  of  a  traveler  which  I  heard  when  I  was  a 
boy  that  has  stayed  with  me  ever  since  and  which 
I  hope  will  stay  with  you  also.  This  traveler 
was  going,  in  his  journey,  through  a  thick  wood, 
when  a  huge  bear  sprang  out  at  him,  but  raising 
his  trusty  rifle  to  his  shoulder  he  brought  him  to 
the  ground  and  hurried  on.  Shortly  he  heard  the 
howling  of  wolves  and  looking  behind  saw  that  he 
was  pursued.  Digging  the  spurs  into  his  steed 
he  took  to  rapid  flight.  But  the  wolves  soon 
caught  up  and  he  felt  that  it  would  not  be  long 
until  they  would  pull  him  from  the  saddle  to 
his  death.  Rising  in  his  stirrups  he  fired  at  the 
leader  and  brought  him   down.     Thereupon   the 

109 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

other  members  of  the  pack  fell  to  eating  the  dead, 
and  he  escaped. 

Rejoicing  in  his  prowess  in  making  this  double 
escape  from  bear  and  wolves,  he  rolled  himself 
up  in  his  blanket  and  lay  down  to  sleep,  when  a 
serpent  that  had  coiled  itself  in  the  folds  of  his 
blanket  stung  him  to  death. 

Now  this  is  the  same  kind  of  story  that  Amos 
is  telling  us  here.  You  may  escape  two  great  evils 
to  be  destroyed  by  a  third  that  you  never  dream 
of,  or  which  you  think  too  weak  and  innocent 
to  harm  you.  This  man  by  his  swift  running  has 
escaped  the  lion, — which  in  Bible  times  was  sup- 
posed to  be  exceedingly  swift  and  to  attack  its  prey 
only  in  the  open, — and,  feeling  himself  safe,  has 
gone  carelessly  along  his  way.  But  the  bear,  which 
is  supposed  to  be  like  our  fox  in  his  cunning, 
lurks  behind  the  bushes  and  darts  out  at  him  as  he 
passes  by.  By  careful  dodging  he  eludes  the  bear 
and  gains  the  safety  of  his  own  home.  Panting 
and  tired,  yet  feeling  perfectly  secure,  he  leans 
for  rest  against  the  wall  of  his  home — safe,  safe, 
at  last.  But  just  then  a  slimy,  treacherous  snake 
crawls  lazily  out  of  the  cracks  in  the  wall  and 
stings  him,  and  he  dies. 

Now  I  am  wondering  how  many  of  you  boys 
and  girls  have  caught  the  lesson.  It  is  this — that 
not  for  a  moment  must  you  believe  that  because 
you  do  not  murder,  or  steal,  or  lie,  or  swear,  that 
you  are  safe.     The  little  serpent  of  bad  temper  or 

110 


THE  LION,  THE  BEAR  AND  THE  SERPENT 

thoughtlessness  may  get  you  yet.  Don't  you  re- 
member how  in  the  fairy  stories  the  old  witch 
always  kept  changing  from  a  horrid  beast  into  a 
lovely  maiden,  and  from  a  lovely  maiden  into  a, 
horrid  beast? 

So  it  is  that  Satan  changes,  and  if  you  think 
you  have  gotten  away  from  him  because  you  have 
escaped  the  old  lion  of  cruelty,  beware  that  you 
do  not  find  the  old  bear  deceit  lying  about  some- 
where. Or  if  you  have  managed  to  elude  him, 
don't  think  you  can  always  escape  the  old  snake 
of  falsehood. 

It  is  the  "little  foxes  that  spoil  the  vines,"  and 
it  is  the  little  sins  that  after  all  trip  us  up.  Watch 
out,  boys,  for  little  sins.  Watch  out,  girls,  for  little 
faults.  Notice  that  it  was  in  this  man's  own  house 
that  the  serpent  got  him.  It  is  in  your  own  hearts 
that  these  little  sins  lie.  And  they  are  all  the  more 
dangerous  because  we  do  not  at  once  recognize 
them  as  sins. 


Ill 


WEIGHING  HEARTS 

Text— Job  31  :6. 

Objects — A  pair  of  toy  scales  and  if  possible  a  scarabaeus. 

My  Dear  Young  Christians: 

I  have  before  me  to-day  one  object  that  you  are 
famihar  with,  and  one  with  which  you  are  not 
famiHar.  The  first  you  will  quickly  recognize  as 
a  pair  of  toy  scales  such  as  you  use  in  playing 
"store." 

The  other  is  a  scarab  or  sacred  beetle  cut  out  of 
stone  and  taken  from  the  tomb  of  an  Egyptian. 
These  scarabs  were  considered  to  be  emblems  of 
immortality  and  were  supposed  to  grant  to  the 
person  holding  them  in  their  hands  after  death  a 
safe  entrance  into  the  other  world. 

In  the  British  Museum  there  are  hundreds  of 
these  scarabs,  and  all  of  them  are  engraved  with 
some  emblem,  the  translation  of  which  is  written  on 
a  tin  tablet  below.  One  of  these  inscriptions  reads 
thus,  "A  prayer  that  the  weighing  of  the  heart 
of  the  possessor  in  the  Hall  of  Double  Justice, 
before  the  guardian  of  the  scales,  may  be  found 
satisfactory." 

This  struck  me  as  peculiar  and  I  began  to  study 
the  matter.  I  found  that  the  Egyptians  taught 
that  after  death  the  person  was  conducted  into 
112 


WEIGHING  HEARTS 

the  Hall  of  Truth  and  Righteousness  by  the  god 
Anubis  and  that  there  were  seated  about  the  hall 
forty-two  accusers  who  would  accuse  the  person  of 
forty-two  terrible  crimes.  These  he  had  to  deny, 
and  in  order  to  be  sure  that  he  told  the  truth  they 
did  this  remarkable  thing,  boys  and  girls, — they 
weighed  his  heart.  In  the  one  side  of  the  scale 
they  put  his  heart,  and  in  the  other  the  symbol  for 
truth.  If  the  weighing  was  satisfactory  his  heart 
was  restored  to  his  body  and  he  went  to  heaven. 
If  not,  and  his  heart  was  under  weight,  he  was 
fed  as  a  dainty  meal  to  the  hippopotamus  that 
guarded  the  heavenly  gardens.  How  funny  it 
seems  to  weigh  a  fellow's  heart,  doesn't  it?  Yet 
that  is  just  what  Job  is  talking  about  in  our  text. 
"Let  me  be  weighed  in  an  even  balance  that  God 
may  know  mine  integrity." 

That  is  what  the  writer  of  Proverbs  meant 
when  he  said,  ''The  ways  of  a  man  are  clean  in  his 
own   eyes,   but   the   Lord   weigheth   the   spirits." 

Think  what  wonderfully  accurate  scales  God 
must  have.  In  one  place  we  are  told  he  weighs 
mountains  in  his  balances  and  in  this  place  that  he 
weighs  such  an  airy,  filmy  nothing  as  spirit. 

Men  are  able  to  make  wonderful  scales  such  as 
that  in  the  mint  where  they  can  weigh  from  tons 
down  to  the  millionth  part  of  an  ounce,  but  no 
man  ever  could  weigh  the  heart  of  a  man.  God 
alone  weighs  that,  and  he  weighs  it  in  the  scales 
with  truth,  boys.     We  do  not  like  the  idea  much  of 

8  113 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

being  measured  up  with  truth,  but  our  hearts  are 
constantly  in  God's  scale. 

There  was  a  man  in  the  olden  days  named 
Belshazzar,  whose  heart  was  weighed.  You  recall 
that  story — how  in  the  midst  of  the  feast  he  saw 
a  hand  writing  upon  the  wall,  "Mene,  mene, 
tekel  upharsin," — thou  art  weighed  in  the  balance 
and  found  wanting. 

Now  then — if  this  is  all  true,  and  we  want  to 
have  hearts  that  weigh  right  in  the  day  of  God's 
judging,  the  best  thing  we  can  do  is  to  weigh  our 
hearts  each  day  with  truth  in  the  other  side  of 
the  scale.  Let  us  check  them  up  every  hour  of  the 
day.  How  is  it  now?  Are  you  telling  truth  now? 
Are  you  living  truly  now?  Have  you  boys  any 
secrets  under  those  manly  breasts  of  yours  that  you 
dare  not  tell  father?  Have  you  girls  any  treasures 
in  your  hearts  that  you  would  rather  not  show 
mother? 

Put  your  heart  into  the  scale  with  truth  to-day 
and  then  check  up  the  balance  daily  and  you  will 
find  that  if  you  are  honest  to-day  there  will  not 
be  much  trouble  by  and  by. 

Shall  we  not  all  be  willing  to  pray  the  prayer  of 
the  Psalmist — "Search  me,  O  God,  and  know  my 
heart:  try  me,  and  know  my  thoughts:  and  see  if 
there  be  any  wicked  way  in  me,  and  lead  me  in 
the  way  everlasting." 


114 


THE  DANGEROUS  SHADOW 

Text— Eph.  5  : 8. 

My  Dear  "Children  of  Light": 

One  day  this  summer  while  we  were  traveling 
from  Siena  to  Rome  in  hot  and  dusty  Italy,  the 
train  suddenly  put  on  brakes  and  stopped  hurriedly 
just  after  we  had  passed  an  arch  of  a  bridge  over 
the  railroad  track.  Everyone  either  got  out  or 
looked  out,  and  noticed  that  the  train  crew  were 
running  wildly, — and  gesticulating  as  they  ran, — 
toward  the  bridge  from  under  which  we  had  just 
come.  And  looking  back  over  the  short  distance 
across  the  tracks  vibrating  with  the  heat  we  saw 
a  poor  fellow  lying  bleeding  beside  the  roadbed 
with  a  party  of  dazed  and  excited  Italians  gathered 
about  him.  Everyone  was  excited  and  all  gesticu- 
lated as  the  Italians  will.  But  one  poor  fellow  with 
blue  overalls  seemed  to  be  more  unnerved  than  all 
the  rest.  He  ran  about  wringing  his  hands  and 
crying  in  his  native  tongue,  "He  was  in  the  shadow 
and  I  did  not  see  him."  "He  was  in  the  shadow 
and  I  did  not  see  him."  True  enough  he  was, 
for  the  poor  unfortunate  had  been  lying  in  the 
shadow  of  the  bridge  resting  from  his  morning's 
toil  in  the  heat,  and  the  engineer,  because  of  the 
dense  shadow  of  the  archway  and  the  blinding 
sunlight  that  was  all  about,  did  not  see  him  and  ran 

115 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

him  down.  They  picked  him  up  tenderly  and  laid 
him  in  the  coach,  but  the  doctor,  who  happened 
to  be  on  the  train,  gave  us  little  hope  that  he  would 
live.  At  every  station  the  excited  engineer  got 
out  and  cried  to  all  who  passed  by,  "He  was  in 
the  shadow  and  I  did  not  see  him."  The  shadow 
was  a  comfortable  but  a  mighty  dangerous  place 
to  be.  Boys  and  girls,  it  always  is.  Most  of 
the  evil  that  is  done  in  the  world  is  done  in  the 
shadow.  Jesus  said  to  Nicodemus,  "For  every 
one  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the  light,"  and  "Men 
loved  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their 
deeds  were  evil." 

The  burglar  creeps  into  one's  home  under  the 
shadow  of  early  morning  just  before  day.  The 
drunkard  staggers  home  in  the  darkness. 

We  are  coming  to  hate  the  evil  shadow  so  greatly 
in  our  cities,  that  each  year  we  are  erecting  more 
light  poles.  This  last  year  the  city  in  which  we 
live  set  nearly  a  thousand  new  lamps  blazing  along 
its  main  streets  believing  that  one  electric  light 
that  drives  away  the  shadows  is  better  than  a 
dozen  policemen. 

The  shadow  means  dangers  to  you  boys  and 
girls.  When  God's  people  Israel  wanted  to  commit 
idolatry,  they  sought  out  the  shadows  under  the 
green  trees  upon  the  hill  tops.  And  when  to-day 
the  crooked  business  man  does  business  in  a  way 
that  you  children  would  say  wasn't  "fair,'*  we 
talk  about  his  "shady"  operations.  When  you 
116 


THE  DANGEROUS  SHADOW 

chaps  want  to  do  wrong,  you  get  in  the  shadow. 
In  the  shadow  of  the  barn  some  of  the  older  boys 
here  to-day  smoked  their  first  cigarette,  and  their 
sons  do  the  same  thing,  if  they  have  not  learned 
better  about  these  cigarettes. 

Where  did  you  go  after  you  had  bought  that 
miserable  book  that  you  did  not  dare  to  let  mother 
see?  Off  into  the  haymow  of  the  barn,  if  you 
lived  in  the  country — in  the  shadow. 

In  the  shadow  of  the  schoolhouse  you  girls  got 
together  to  talk  over  that  new  girl  that  just  came 
to  school,  and  said  things  and  did  things  that  you 
would  have  been  ashamed  to  do  openly.  And 
sometimes  when  a  boy  gets  older  the  shadow  is 
the  shadow  of  a  corner  grocery  store,  or  the  back 
room  of  a  cigar  store  or  pool  room.  And  then 
by  and  by  the  shadow  he  looks  for  is  the  shadow 
of  the  saloon's  swinging  door.  Then  it  is  the  shadow 
of  the  dark  alley,  and  in  that  shadow  he  learns  to 
commit  crime, — until  the  shadow  of  the  prison 
covers  him. 

Yes,  the  shadow  is  a  bad  place  for  a  boy  or  a 
girl.  How  careful  we  ought  to  be  to  heed  Paul's 
words,  "Walk  as  children  of  light."  For  God  is 
light.  There  is  no  shadow  with  him.  All  things 
are  open  in  the  eye  of  our  heavenly  Father.  The 
darkness  and  the  light  are  both  alike  to  him. 
One  of  the  most  useful  texts  of  Scripture  I  ever 
learned,  was  this,  "Thou  God  seest  me."  Look 
out  for  the  shadow,  Juniors,  and  walk  in  the  light. 
117 


BACK  IN  HARNESS 

Text — James  3:3.     "  Behold,  we  put  bits  in  the  horses' 
mouths,  that  they  may  obey  us." 
Object — A  bridle,  or  piece  of  harness. 

My  Dear  Young  Christians: 

This  week  will  see  vacation  close  and  the  school 
doors  open  and  you  will  be  getting  back  to  work. 
I  have  tried  to  get  a  topic  to-day  that  would  help 
you  to  go  back  in  good  spirits  and  with  a  willing- 
ness to  do  your  best. 

I  have  brought  you  to-day  as  our  object  this 
bit  and  bridle,  and  our  text  says,  "Behold  we 
put  bits  in  the  horses'  mouths,"  and  then  tells  us 
why.  I  wonder  if  in  our  vacation  days  in  the 
country,  on  the  farm,  we  have  seen  a  horse  turned 
out  to  pasture.  How  happy  he  is  to  get  the  harness 
off  and  how  he  jumps,  and  whinnies,  and  rolls  in 
the  soft  clover.  But  the  day  comes  when  he  must 
get  back  to  work.  And  how  he  dislikes  that. 
The  farmer  has  to  get  a  measure  with  some  salt, 
or  a  wisp  of  hay  and  go  to  the  fence  rail  and  coax 
and  call,  and  then  quickly  slip  the  halter  on,  or 
the  bridle.  It  will  be  some  days  before  the  farmer 
can  get  that  horse  to  work  well.  He  will  want 
to  go  Into  every  field  he  sees. 

So  is  it  with  you  boys  and  girls  and  with  us  grown- 
ups. All  summer  you  have  been  "turned  out  to 
118 


BACK  IN  HARNESS 

grass."  The  schoolroom  doors  have  been  closed. 
The  books  all  set  aside  and  you  have  been  running 
wild.  Now  the  school  bell  will  soon  sound  and 
the  factory  whistles  will  blow  and  we  shall  all 
know  that  it  is  time  to  get  back  to  work. 

We  call  it  "getting  back  into  harness."  Duty 
becomes  our  master  again,  and  hitches  us  up 
again  in  the  harness — ties  us  once  more  to  our 
regular  tasks.  This  week  the  teacher  will  come  to 
the  schoolroom  door  with  the  harness  in  her  hand 
and  call  you  back.  You  will  put  on  the  harness 
again  and  be  tied  up  to  books  and  lessons  all  winter. 

Rather  hard  isn't  it?  Some  of  us  older  folks 
find  it  so. 

But  the  harness  has  its  blessed  uses  for  the  horse, 
and  for  you  also.  What  does  the  harness  do  for 
the  horse? 

First. — It  teaches  him  obedience.  We  put 
harnesses  on  the  horses,  and  bits  in  their  mouths, 
says  our  text,  "that  they  may  obey  us."  The 
greatest  lesson  of  life,  boys  and  girls,  is  obe- 
dience. When  you  have  learned  that,  you  can 
learn  almost  anything.  And  we  go  to  school  to 
learn  that.  The  horse  cannot  be  of  use  unless  he 
learns  to  follow  the  rein.  Neither  can  the  boy  or 
girl.  Some  time  ago  in  one  of  the  European  coun- 
tries, a  switch  tender  on  the  railroad,  saw  his  little 
boy  playing  on  the  tracks  where  a  fast  train  was 
coming.  He  could  not  leave  the  switch  to  go 
after  the  child,  and  he  could  not  throw  the  train 

119 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

on  another  track  without  great  loss  of  life.  So  he 
called  to  the  boy  loudly,  "Lie  down!"  The  little 
fellow  had  early  learned  obedience,  and  so,  instantly, 
he  lay  down  and  the  great  train  passed  over  him 
without  giving  him  even  a  scratch. 

Second. — Then  the  harness  gives  the  horse  a 
chance  to  be  useful,  and  to  put  his  great  powers 
and  strength  to  service.  Without  the  harness 
that  ties  him  to  his  work,  he  would  waste  his 
strength.  We  do  not  like  to  be  tied  to  work,  but 
it  is  the  only  way  our  youthful  strength  will  become 
of  use.  We  talk  about  harnessing  the  great  Falls 
of  Niagara.  And  men  have  done  it  so  that  the 
great  body  of  water  is  doing  work  for  the  world 
to-day  in  running  great  factories  and  making  light 
for  distant  cities.  We  have  harnessed  steam,  and 
gas,  and  electricity,  and  gasoline,  and  now  the 
air,  and  made  them  useful.  You  boys  and  girls 
are  carrying  about  with  you  a  pressure  of  youthful 
strength — about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  to 
the  square  inch.  If  you  get  "hitched  up"  to 
some  definite  duty  that  will  count  for  good. 

Third. — Then  the  harness  is  the  horse's  safety, 
and  having  a  regular  duty  is  your  safety  also. 
In  olden  days  the  word  "harness"  meant  the  armor 
which  the  knight  put  upon  his  horse  and  himself 
to  protect  them  from  the  arrows  and  spears  of  the 
enemy.  The  harness  to-day  keeps  the  horse  out 
of  mischief.  It  keeps  him  in  the  road  and  keeps 
him  busy. 

120 


BACK  IN  HARNESS 

Our  school  tasks  keep  our  minds  busy  so  that 
they  are  not  filled  with  harmful  things.  There  was 
a  story  in  The  Ram's  Horn  about  a  boy  whose 
report  had  been  below  the  average  in  school  and 
his  father  noticed  a  number  of  dime  novels  in  his 
son's  room.  He  said  nothing  about  them  but  when 
the  lad  came  in  he  said,  "Take  this  basket  of 
apples,  turn  the  apples  out  and  fill  the  basket  with 
chips."  The  boy  returned  the  basket  partly  filled. 
''Now,"  said  his  father,  "put  the  apples  back  into 
the  basket." 

The  boy  tried  but  found  that  the  fruit  rolled 
out  as  fast  as  he  could  put  it  in.  "I  can't  do  it, 
father,  the  basket  is  half  full  of  chips."  "Exactly 
so"  said  his  parent,  **  and  how  can  you  fill  your 
mind  with  useful  learning  when  you  have  it  more 
than  half  full  of  rubbish?"  Being  at  school  and 
being  faithful  to  our  studies  keeps  us  safe. 

Then,  last  of  all  remember  that  Jesus  talked 
about  harness,  for  the  ox-yokes  of  Jesus'  day  were 
the  harnesses  of  the  times.  He  said,  "  Take  my 
yoke  of  obedience  and  learn  of  me  and  you  shall 
find  rest."  Jesus  wants  us  to  work,  but  as  we 
work,  he  wants  us  to  know  that  he  works  with  us 
and  will  give  us  rest  in  the  midst  of  our  toil. 


121 


"KEYED  UP" 

Text— Luke  12  :  35. 

Objects — A  sash  or  girdle  and  small  lamp. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

I  have  here  to-day  for  our  object  lesson,  a  girdle 
such  as  is  worn  in  the  East,  and  a  small  lamp  such 
as  used  to  be  carried  in  the  days  of  Jesus.  Both 
of  these  figure  in  the  picture  of  watchmen  which 
Jesus  has  drawn  in  our  text.  The  lord  of  the 
mansion  has  gone  out  for  the  evening  and  has 
left  these  men  to  await  his  coming.  Possibly  he 
has  been  on  a  journey  into  the  country  and  is 
weary,  and  dusty  and  desires  a  feet  washing  or  a 
hot  supper,  and  moreover,  as  the  ways  were  dark 
in  those  dark  days  and  no  brilliant  street  lamps 
illumined  the  way,  it  would  be  necessary  for  the 
servants  to  have  the  lamp  lighted  to  guide  him  in 
the  narrow  street  along  which  he  came  to  his  home. 
The  girdle  was  worn  around  the  waist  and  when 
service  was  required  the  loose  outer  garment  was 
caught  up  and  made  fast  with  it  and  the  man  was 
unincumbered  and  better  fit  to  wait  upon  his 
lord.  Beside  that  there  would  be  the  strengthen- 
ing of  the  body-making  the  service  easier.  The 
man  with  loins  girt  and  lamp  lighted  was  as  we 
say  "keyed  up"  to  the  moment  when  his  master 
should  require  him.  When  God  prepared  his 
122 


"KEYED  UP' 

people  to  go  out  of  Egypt  he  ordered  that  as  their 
going  was  to  be  sudden,  their  loins  were  to  be  girt 
about  and  their  shoes  were  to  be  upon  their  feet 
and  their  staves  in  their  hands.  There  would  be 
no  time  to  do  it  after  the  summons  came. 

Jesus  wants  to  teach  us  that  it  is  necessary  for  a 
Christian  to  be  always  "keyed  up"  and  "girt 
about." 

Every  spring  and  fall  you  notice  that  father  has 
the  piano  "tuned  up."  When  a  violinist  begins 
to  play  he  first  has  to  "tune  up"  that  instrument 
of  his;  and  a  most  nerve  racking  procedure  it 
often  is. 

Now  we  find  that  the  aviator  has  to  "tune  up" 
his  biplane,  by  tightening  every  wire,  before  he 
dares  to  attempt  a  flight. 

I  often  wonder  how  the  lighthouse  keepers  stand 
the  strain  of  their  hard  life,  for  they  are  obliged 
to  keep  their  lights  and  the  machinery  that  runs 
them,  up  to  the  top  notch  of  perfection,  or  the 
lights  might  fail  and  men  lose  their  lives  along 
the  shore. 

This  is  what  Jesus  meant  when  he  said  that  we 
were  to  be  like  watchmen  with  their  loins  tied  up 
tight — constantly  vigilant  and  ready. 

You  know  what  that  means — you  boys  know. 
Did  you  ever  go  to  see  a  series  of  professional 
baseball  games,  when  there  were  two  runs  on  either 
side  in  the  ninth  inning  and  three  men  on  bases, 
and  two  out  and  the  strongest  hitter  at  the  bat? 
123 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

Watch  those  infielders — they  are  keyed  up,  they 
have  their  loins  girt  and  their  lamps  lighted,  they 
are  "on  the  job."  Well,  that  is  the  condition  in 
which  Jesus  wants  every  child  of  his  to  be.  Eternal 
vigilance  is  not  only  "the  price  of  liberty,"  as  we 
write  in  our  copy  books,  but  the  price  of  every- 
thing. 

Now  some  of  us  are  loosely  tied  together.  The 
other  day  in  Cincinnati  they  published  a  list  of 
things  that  had  become  loose  in  the  mails  and  been 
lost  to  their  owners.  Among  the  long  list  were 
watch  chain,  cuff  buttons,  tooth  brush,  set  of 
teaspoons,  bracelet,  earrings,  pocket  knife,  brush, 
bundle  of  iron,  brass  lock,  box  of  pills,  set  of  false 
teeth,  bicycle  sprocket  wheel,  door  keys,  box  of 
salve,  comb,  and  no  end  of  small  coins  of  silver 
and  copper.  I  suppose  their  owners  blamed  Uncle 
Sam  for  their  loss.  They  were  not  tied  tight. 
And  there  are  a  lot  of  things  about  us  that  we  allow 
to  get  loose  when  they  ought  to  be  tied  up  tight. 

We  need  to  gird  up  the  loins  of  our  church-going. 
Just  you  boys  and  girls  take  up  a  few  holes  in  that 
girdle — won't  you?  We  are  rather  loose  on  that. 
And  when  our  habits  get  a  little  loose  it's  hard  to 
do  right.  We  need  to  pull  up  that  girdle  of 
prayer.  We  pray  now  and  then,  but  we  do  not 
pray  without  ceasing  as  Paul  tells  us  to  do. 

We  get  a  little  careless  about  telling  the 
exact  truth  and  before  we  can  get  the  girdle  tied 
up,  along  comes  a  temptation  to  lie,  and  we  lie. 

124 


"KEYED  UP" 

Some  day  when  our  loins  of  obedience  are 
loosely  girt,  the  thief  called  "disobedience"  comes 
along,  and  before  we  can  get  them  tied  up  tight  in 
order  to  fight  him,  he  downs  us. 

Remember,  boys  and  girls,  to  keep  "keyed  up,'* 
"tuned  up,"  "tied  up." 


125 


PICKING  UP  THE  BUOYS 

Text — Heb.   5  :  14.      "  Their  senses  exercised   to    discern 
both  good  and  evil." 
Object — A  searchlight  torch,  or  a  bull's-eye  lantern. 

Dear  Juniors: 

I  am  wondering  if  you  had  as  good  a  summer 
vacation  as  I  had.  When  I  am  away  I  am  think- 
ing of  you  all,  and  trying  to  get  some  lessons 
for  you  out  of  God's  greatest  book,  greatest  in 
size  I  mean,  the  book  of  nature,  and  the  great 
outdoors. 

Coming  down  the  coast  from  a  stay  In  Maine, 
the  steamer  had  just  left  Rockland  harbor,  and 
I  was  walking  the  upper  deck  enjoying  the  beau- 
tiful display  of  northern  lights  that  were  sweep- 
ing across  the  heavens,  when  I  saw  a  brilliant, 
broad  ray  of  dazzling  light  shoot  out  from  the 
pilot  house  of  the  steamer  and  move  quickly  and 
anxiously  back  and  forth  over  the  face  of  the  black 
water.  For  some  seconds  it  rested  upon  the 
water  alone,  but  suddenly  there  flashed  out  in 
its  path  a  bright  steel  shaft  coming  out  of  the  sea. 
It  was  the  buoy  that  marked  the  channel  between 
the  many  rocky  ledges  that  infest  the  coast  of 
Maine.  The  captain  had  found  what  he  was 
seeking  with  his  great  electric  searchlight.  One  by 
one  at  intervals  he  "picked  up"  the  buoys,  as  they 

126 


PICKING  UP  THE  BUOYS 

call  it.  Now  it  was  a  great  tripod  of  wood  that 
loomed  out  of  the  darkness,  now  it  was  a  spar. 
In  the  distance  we  would  hear  a  bell  slowly  clanging, 
and  suddenly  the  great  light  would  move  out  in 
the  direction  of  the  sound  and  we  could  see  the 
lonely  bell  buoy  tossing  on  the  waves.  He  was 
picking  up  the  buoys,  getting  his  eye  on  the  points 
of  danger.  But  the  captain  knew  they  were  there. 
Not  once  did  he  come  too  near  them,  even 
though  he  had  not  seen  them.  He  knew  they 
were  near  and  he  wanted  to  be  doubly  sure  just 
where.     And  this  is  the  sermon  from  the  sea. 

Every  boy  and  girl  moves  out  of  the  harbor  of 
boyhood  or  girlhood  knowing  In  a  vague  way  that 
there  are  dangers  ahead.  If  father  has  not  told 
you  so,  mother  has,  and  if  both  have  neglected  the 
warning,  some  tireless  preacher  or  teacher  has 
told  you,  perhaps.  Like  the  captain,  you  know 
they  are  there  somewhere — little  sins  waiting  to 
trip  you,  big  rocks  and  ledges  of  sin  to  wreck 
your  ship.  You  have  to  steer  your  course  care- 
fully if  you  would  avoid  them,  and  it  is  a  mighty 
good  thing  to  know  just  where  they  He.  It  is  not 
enough  for  the  fireman  to  know  the  house  is  afire, 
he  must  know  just  where  the  fire  is.  So  he  does  a 
lot  of  chopping.  It  is  not  enough  for  the  captain 
to  know  there  are  rocks  there,  but  he  must 
know  just  where  they  are. 

Now  God  has  buoyed  the  dangerous  places  in 
life,  but  we  do  not  always  "pick  up  the  buoys." 
127 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

Years  ago  the  captains  could  not  do  that  at  night. 
But  since  electricity  came  into  use  they  can. 
Now  God  has  put  within  the  pilot  house  of  our 
being  a  powerful  searchlight.  We  call  it  "the 
moral  sense."  It  tells  us  at  once  where  the  buoys 
are.  It  says  this  thing  is  a  good  thing  and  that 
thing  is  a  bad  thing. 

You  hear  people  talk  about  "the  evils  of  appe- 
tite," and  you  get  to  believe  that  there  is  evil  in 
appetite.  But  just  where  that  evil  is  you  do  not 
know  until  you  get  your  seachlight  working.  Pretty 
soon  it  shines  upon  a  cigarette,  and  it  says,  "Steer 
away,  danger  here." 

By  and  by  it  gets  to  shining  upon  a  glass  of  wine, 
and  it  says  to  you,  "Danger  right  here — steer 
away." 

You  hear  people  say,  "There  is  danger  in  bad 
reading,"  and  one  day  your  searchlight  gets  its 
rays  on  a  dime  novel  with  a  red  cover  and  it  says, 
"Right  here  is  bad  reading — steer  away." 

You  hear  people  say,  "There  is  danger  in  bad 
companions,"  and  one  day  the  light  falls  on  Tom 
Jones  or  Bill  Smith,  and  it  cries,  "Steer  away, 
this  is  a  bad  rock  for  you  to  be  near." 

So  if  we  let  it,  the  great  searchlight  of  our  moral 
sense  will  show  just  at  what  spot  these  dangers 
we  have  heard  of  lie. 

We  must  keep  that  searchlight  in  order.  In  our 
text  this  morning  we  read  of  those  v/ho  had  their 
"senses  exercised  to  discern  both  good  and  evil," 
128 


PICKING  UP  THE  BUOYS 

which  is  only  saying  that  they  kept  the  reflectors 
clean  and  the  current  moving  and  the  carbons 
renewed,  in  that  moral  sense  which  God  gave  us. 

So,  boys  and  girls,  let  us  keep  that  light  moving. 
Throw  it  on  everything  about  you  and  learn  to 
discern  between  good  and  evil. 

Oh,  how  much  trouble  and  sorrow  and  suffering 
to  ourselves  and  to  those  who  love  us  would  we 
avoid  if  we  were  always  careful  first  to  know  an 
evil  thing  when  we  saw  it,  and  then  were  quick  to 
steer  away. 

It  is  an  awful  thing  to  put  out  that  light.  And 
it  may  be  done — so  successfully  that  we  get  to 
calling  "evil"  "good,"  and  "good"  "evil";  and 
"light  "darkness,"  and  "darkness"  "light," 
"safety"  "danger,"  and  "danger"  "safety." 

Keep  your  light  burning,  and  pick  up  the  buoys, 
and  you  will  have  a  safe  course. 


129 


ARE  YOU  A  HOBAB? 

Text — Num.  lo  :  31. 

Object— A  large  picture  of  the  human  eye. 

Dear  Juniors: 

Are  you  a  Hobab?  "Who  was  he? "  you  ask  me. 
Well,  your  question  is  excusable  when  I  think  of 
the  number  of  people  this  week  who  have  been 
looking  at  the  little  cards  I  gave  you  last  Sunday, 
and  know  no  more  about  him  than  you  do.  Yes, 
and  I  have  had  at  least  three  ministers  say  to  me, 
"Well,  who  was  he,  anyway?"  But  I  won't  "give 
those  ministers  away."  To  begin  with  he  was 
Moses'  brother-in-law,  and  Moses  met  him  in  the 
wilderness  when  he  was  leading  that  great  army  of 
slaves  out  of  Egypt  which  he  made  into  a  great 
nation.  You  perhaps  remember  that  Moses  had 
married  when  he  kept  sheep  in  Midian,  and  when 
the  family  whom  he  had  left  behind  in  the  desert 
when  he  went  back  into  Egypt  heard  that  he  was 
coming  as  general  of  this  great  army  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  they  came  out  to  meet 
him. 

The  time  now  had  come  to  part,  and  Moses, 
knowing  that  God  was  with  the  children  of  Israel 
and  that  blessings  awaited  them  in  the  land  of 
Canaan,  invited  Hobab  to  go  along  and  share  in 
these  blessings.  "Come  with  us  and  we  will  do 
130 


ARE  YOU  A  HOBAB? 

thee  good."  It  would  have  been  a  great  thing 
for  Hobab  and  his  family  to  get  out  of  the  barren 
desert  into  fertile  land.  But  that  didn't  attract 
Hobab.  The  Arab  loves  the  desert  and  his  home 
ties  were  very  strong,  and  he  refused  to  go. 

So  Moses  tried  another  kind  of  bait  to  catch 
him.  He  knew  that  the  desert  before  them  was 
full  of  dangers  and  pitfalls,  and  that  the  springs 
were  few,  and  the  path  difficult.  None  knew 
where  the  water  and  the  paths  were  as  did  Hobab, 
the  son  of  the  desert.  He  could  be  of  use  to 
Moses,  and  so  Moses  pleaded:  "Come,  and  do 
us  good.  Come,  be  eyes  for  us  in  the  desert. 
Be  our  scout,  be  our  guide.  Lead  us  in  the  difficult 
path."  And  Hobab  who  couldn't  be  induced  to 
leave  his  own  home  for  gain  to  himself,  went  along 
with  Moses,  because  he  saw  that  he  could  be 
useful.  He  became  eyes  for  them.  Now  I  like 
that  kind  of  fellow,  don't  you?  He  refused  to  go 
for  his  own  good,  but  when  it  came  to  doing  some- 
thing for  others,  he  went  along. 

Are  you  a  Hobab?  The  church  and  the  Sunday 
school  are  calling  to  you  boys  and  girls  on  this 
Rally  Day.  "Come  with  us  and  we  will  do  thee 
good."  And  I  want  to  tell  you  that  nowhere 
outside  of  home  and  heaven  will  you  ever  get  so 
much  good  as  in  the  church  and  Sunday  school. 

But  there  is  a  better  call  that  they  make  to  you 
to-day.  "Come  and  do  us  good."  "Come  and 
be  eyes  for  us."  "Come  and  be  useful."  That's 
131 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

a  better  call.  "Be  eyes  for  us."  "  Be  the  scouts 
of  the  kingdom  of  Jesus." 

We  want  you  all  to  be  Hobabs  to-day.  I  have 
set  your  trade-mark  and  his  on  the  pulpit  here — 
this  great  eye. 

You  boys  and  girls  never  know  how  you  can 
lead  others.  The  Bible  says,  "and  a  little  child 
shall  lead  them."  Jesus  thought  so  when  he  put 
the  little  child  in  the  midst  of  the  disciples  as  an 
example.  He  also  said  once  that  God  had  hidden 
the  sweetest  things  of  all  from  the  wise  and  the 
prudent  and  revealed  them  to  babes. 

I  suppose  you  have  often  been  eyes  for  old 
people.  One  day  grandmother  lost  her  spectacles 
and  she  said,  "Come,  dearie,  be  eyes  for  grand- 
mother, and  find  my  spectacles."  One  day  mother 
said,  "I've  lost  my  needle  down  on  the  floor;  your 
eyes  are  better  than  mine,  my  boy;  find  it  for  me." 
But  there  are  better  ways  of  being  eyes.  Once 
there  was  a  little  boy  whose  name  was  William, 
whose  parents  were  not  Christians  and  did  not  go 
to  church,  and  they  did  not  pray,  but  they  wanted 
William  to  say  his  prayers  at  night.  After  saying 
them  one  evening,  he  looked  up  to  his  mother's 
face  and  asked,  "Mother,  don't  you  ever  pray?" 
"Well— no,  dearie,  I  am  afraid  I  don't."  "Well 
does  papa  pray?"  "No,  I  don't  think  he  does," 
said  his  mother.  The  little  fellow  was  silent  for 
a  moment  and  then  he  said,  "  Mother,  I  think  God 
will  hear  a  little  boy  like  me  when  he  prays,  but 
132 


ARE  YOU  A  HOBAB? 

don't  you  think  it's  kinder  hard  on  me  to  have  to 
do  the  prayin'  for  the  whole  family?"  His  mother 
couldn't  answer  that,  but  when  the  little  fellow 
had  fallen  asleep,  she  stole  over  to  his  crib  and 
knelt  down  and  asked  God  to  forgive  her  for  not 
praying  more.    That  boy  was  a  Hobab. 

There  is  the  story  of  a  fairy  who  was  promised 
heaven  if  she  could  bring  a  gift  most  acceptable 
to  God.  She  tried  a  drop  of  a  hero's  blood;  then 
the  smile  of  a  maiden  who  had  died  nursing  her 
lover;  but  she  was  refused.  At  last  the  gates 
opened  for  her,  for  she  carried  the  tears  of  a  re- 
pentant man  who  had  been  converted  by  the 
prayers  of  a  little  child. 

Then  you  can  be  eyes  to  your  fellows.  You've 
played  ''follow  the  leader?"  Well  once  there 
were  some  boys  in  a  western  town  playing  that 
game  and  they  followed  their  leader  over  posts 
until  they  came  to  a  mail-box  post.  But  in  going 
over  they  upset  the  box  and  the  letters  fell  out. 
They  were  terribly  frightened  and  were  going  to 
run  away,  when  the  leader  said,  "Let's  sit  down 
and  write  a  letter  and  say  we  did  it  but  didn't 
mean  to."  So  they  did.  And  the  leader  said, 
"Let's  go  and  tell  the  postmaster  we  did  it  but 
didn't  mean  to."  So  in  they  walked  to  a  surprised 
postmaster  and  the  leader  said,  "Please,  sir,  we 
did  it  and  we'll  take  what's  comin'."  "Did 
what?"  said  the  astonished  man.  Then  they 
told  him.  I  guess  you  know  what  he  said. 
133 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

When    he    opened    the    box    he   found    a    letter 
written  in  a  scrawly  hand  which  said : 
"Dear  postmaster: 

We  did  it,  but  we  didn't  go  to  do  it. 
Yours  truly — 

Henry 
Beaney 

SCOTTY 

Lewis 
George.'* 
That  leader  was  a  Hobab,  and  he  was  only  ten 
years  old. 

Will  you  be  Hobabs,  who  would  rather  serve 
than  be  served  ? 

Will  you  keep  your  eyes  on  good  and  pure  and 
holy  things,  so  that  you  can  be  eyes  for  us  all  in 
the  sandy  deserts  of  Hfe? 


134 


NATURE'S  WREATH   REMAINS 

Text — Prov.  lo  :  7.    "  The  memory  of  the  just  is  blessed." 
Object — A  wreath  of  paper  roses. 

In  one  of  the  daily  papers,  some  days  ago,  there 
appeared  this  notice:  "Twining  about  the  picture 
of  a  departed  one,  a  rosebush  is  still  green  and 
bearing  rosebuds,  although  the  rest  of  the  vine  is 
dead  and  withered  at  the  home  of  Julius  Greene. 
In  Greene's  parlor  hangs  the  picture  of  a  little 
girl,  his  niece,  who  died  some  years  ago.  This 
summer  a  rosebush  in  some  way  trailed  inside 
the  window  between  the  two  sashes,  and  although 
this  kind  of  rosebush  never  does  trail,  but  grows 
straight  up  in  the  air,  the  tendrils  have  reached 
out  and,  fastening  on  the  picture,  have  taken 
their  place  about  it  as  completely  as  if  a  green 
wreath  had  been  placed  there.  While  the  whole 
bush  outside  has  withered,  the  sprout  which  hangs 
about  the  picture  is  still  green,  and  delicately 
colored  buds  shade  the  picture.  Many  have 
visited  the  home  to  see  this  phenomenon." 

Now,  boys  and  girls,  I  have  told  myself  a  story 
about  that  little  girl.  She  was  a  sweet,  loving 
child  but  was  not  noticed  nor  praised.  She  went 
out  of  her  way  daily  to  do  loving  things,  but  got 
no  thanks.  It  hurt  her  sensitive  little  heart, 
and  in  her  fits  of  sadness  she  used  to  go  out  and 

135 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

tell  the  flowers  about  it.  And  one  day  she  sat 
down  beside  the  rosebush  by  the  window  and  into 
the  ear  of  the  lovely  flower  she  poured  all  the  story 
of  her  childish  sorrow.  She  had  daily  watered 
and  tended  that  lovely  rose,  and  that  day  as  the 
tears  fell  down  on  the  leaves  of  the  bush  like  so 
much  heavenly  dew,  the  rosebush  said — to  itself 
of  course,  "  Flowers  are  not  ungrateful  as  people 
often  are;  she  shall  have  her  reward." 

Then  I  saw  that  the  little  girl  had  become  ill, 
and  the  doctor  came  and  went  into  her  little  room. 
And  then  there  was  a  day  when  she  was  no  longer 
there,  and  the  white  bed  was  made,  and  empty. 
But  they  took  her  picture  and  hung  it  on  the  wall, 
and  the  rosebush  saw  it  and  pushed  between  the 
window  frames,  and  climbed  until  it  touched  her 
face  and  made  a  frame  of  green.  And  then  I 
saw  it  blossom.  It  was  a  glorious  sight,  and  the 
room  became  full  of  people  who  came  to  see  the 
curious  thing,  and  they  wondered  and  were  mysti- 
fied. But  I  did  not.  What  I  wondered  at  was 
that  they  in  the  home  had  not  done  it  themselves 
long  ago,  but  waited  for  the  flowers.  And  then 
I  thought  that  the  good  God  who  knows  all  we 
do  and  say  had  taken  every  kindly,  patient  deed 
of  that  little  girl  and  turned  it  into  a  rose  and  sent 
the  roses  in  through  the  window  to  adorn  her  face. 
And  I  wondered  how  many  of  our  boys  and  girls 
are  making  roses  which  God  could  weave  into 
garlands  for  them. 

136 


NATURE'S  WREATH  REMAINS 

Now  there  is  such  a  thing  as  memory.  And 
they  make  wreaths  of  memory  to  hang  over  our 
lives  when  we  are  gone.  But  remember  that  we 
must  furnish  the  memories  out  of  which  to  make 
them. 

Yesterday  Johnnie  struck  his  little  sister.  That 
does  not  go  in  a  rose  wreath,  [holding  up  the  wreath 
of  paper  roses,]  does  it? 

To-day  he  helped  her  get  ready  for  church  and 
brought  her  here.    That  goes  in,  doesn't  it? 

Yesterday  Mary  pouted  and  sulked  when  poor 
tired  mother  asked  her  to  hold  the  baby.  That 
does  not  go  in.  But  to-day  she  washed  all  the 
dishes  so  that  mother  could  come  to  church  with 
her.     That  goes  in. 

So,  my  dear  Juniors,  remember  that  if  wreaths  of 
roses  made  of  memories  are  to  hang  over  your 
lives,  you  must  be  building  them  to-day  of  kindly 
deeds.  And  remember,  too,  that  if  we  do  the 
kindly  deeds,  God  will  take  care  of  the  wreaths. 


137 


CANNED   GOOD(S) 
Objects — ^Two  large  fruit  cans. 

This,  boys  and  girls,  is  an  age  of  canning.  Every- 
thing eatable  that  can  be  preserved  by  being 
protected  from  the  action  of  the  air  is  put  up  in 
cans  for  future  use.  Everything  from  tomatoes  to 
plum  pudding — and  I  put  that  last  of  course  as 
best.  Everything  from  oysters  to  "  add-hot-water- 
and-serve" — which  we  don't  like  unless  there  is 
something  else  better  coming. 

Canning  began  in  this  country  during  the  great 
Civil  War  when  men  found  it  necessary  to  put  food 
away  from  the  destroying  germs  by  sealing  it  up 
in  cans,  so  that  the  soldiers  might  carry  it  on  long 
marches. 

To-day  there  are  eight  hundred  millions  of  cans 
of  food  matter  put  up  in  the  United  States  in  a 
single  year.  Think  of  the  pile  it  would  make  if 
piled  up  in  your  front  yard.  It  would  take  sixty 
thousand  freight  cars  to  pull  it  all  away.  Did 
you  ever  think  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  these 
innocent  looking  and  often  despised  cans  the 
North  Pole  would  still  have  been  standing  lone- 
some and  undiscovered  ?  For  had  not  the  explorers 
been  able  to  carry  canned  food  they  never  could 
have  made  that  bold  dash. 

All  this  suggested  the  thought,  that  I  think 
138 


CANNED  GOOD(S) 

I  have  once  heard  before  from  some  wise  old  man 
who  is  now  probably  dead,  that  there  is  something 
far  better  and  more  to  be  desired  than  food,  that 
also  comes  put  up  in  cans,  and  without  which  life 
would  be  poor  indeed. 

This  something  is  "success."  Success  is  a  very 
necessary  commodity  and  if  we  did  not  get  a  little 
bit  of  it  now  and  then  I  think  we  should  go  under. 
So  it  is  needful  to  preserve  it  by  putting  it  up  in 
cans.  In  fact,  if  we  did  not  have  success  in  cans 
we  should  never  have  it  otherwise.  Let  me  show 
you  these  cans  in  which  it  comes  for  I  have  brought 
them  here  for  you  to  see.  (Turn  the  cans  round 
to  the  side  on  which  you  have  written  on  the  one 
"I  can,"  and  on  the  other  "You  can.")  Here 
they  are  "  I  can  "  and  "You  can."  Now  all  success 
is  put  up  in  these  special  cans.  I  do  not  think 
you  can  get  it  in  any  other  form. 

First  there  is  this  "I  can."  It  is  being  able  to 
say  "I  can,"  that  brings  success.  "The  king  is 
the  man  who  can,"  said  the  philosopher.  The  boy 
who  believes  in  himself  is  the  boy  who  wins.  When 
Admiral  Farragut  was  rebuking  Du  Pont  for  not 
entering  Charleston  Harbor  he  said,  "You  did 
not  believe  that  you  could." 

"Possunt  quia  posse  videntur" — they  are  able 
because  they  think  they  can.  "The  mind  is 
master  of  the  man,  and  so  they  can  who  think 
they  can." 

I  think  some  of  you  know  that  little  poem  about 

139 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

"Couldn't"  and  "Could"  and  how  the  one  suc- 
ceeded and  the  other  did  not. 

"  And  that  was  the  difference  'twixt  *  Couldn't '  and  *  Could '; 
Each  followed  his  own  chosen  plan, 
And    where    *  Couldn't '  just  wouldn't   '  Could  '   earnestly 

would, 
And  where  one  of  them  weakened  the  other  *  made  good  ' 
And  won  with  his  watchword,  '  I  Can.'  " 

No  fellow  ever  succeeded  who  didn't  think  he 
could. 

Now  when  we  come  to  the  matter  of  being 
Christians  and  confessing  Jesus  we  are  apt  to  feel 
that  if  we  start  we  shall  never  succeed.  But  let 
me  ask  you  to  take  these  two  cans  with  you  and 
start  out  on  your  Christian  journey.  And  remember 
that  in  this  case  to  think  of  the  "You  can"  as  true 
of  our  heavenly  Father,  and  as  we  go  look  to  him 
in  prayer  and  say,  "Father,  I  can,  because  you 
can."  Remember  the  words  of  the  great  Apostle 
Paul,  "I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which 
strengtheneth  me."  Let  us  all  say,  "What  I  ought 
to  do  I  must  do,  and  what  I  must  do  I  can  do," 
and  then  add  also  "what  I  can  do  by  God's  help  I 
will  do." 

This  boys,  and  girls,  is  the  only  road  to  success. 


140 


THE   LESSON   OF  THE  SUNDIAL 

Object — A  small  metal  sundial,  or  one  made  of  paste- 
board. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

To-day  we  are  to  say  a  word  concerning  the 
measuring  of  that  priceless  commodity — time. 
Time  in  God's  sight  has  no  hmits,  for  we  know 
that  "one  day  with  him  is  as  a  thousand  years, 
and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day."  But  man  can- 
not live  a  thousand  years,  so  he  has  to  divide  God's 
time  up  into  a  shorter  day. 

In  the  earliest  times  time  was  only  measured 
by  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun.  "Evening 
was  and  morning  was — day  one"  says  the  book  of 
Genesis.  Then  men  began  to  divide  the  day  still 
more  carefully  and  the  faithful  chanticleer  was 
brought  into  requisition.  "At  evening  or  at  mid- 
night or  at  cock  crowing." —  But  the  rooster  was 
not  reliable  and  I  imagine  he  often  fooled  them 
into  getting  to  work  too  early,  for  if  there  is  one 
thing  we  do  not  like  it  is  getting  to  work  too 
early. 

So  men  began  to  devise  means  for  dividing  the 
day,  and  among  the  earliest  means  of  so  doing  was 
the  sundial,  a  copy  of  which  we  have  with  us  this 
morning  as  our  object  lesson.  As  the  sun  shone  it 
threw  the  shadow  of  this  "gnomon",  as  we  call 
141 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

this  upright  plane,  onto  the  graded  scale  on  the 
disk  and  pointed  out  the  hours.  Then  some  one 
invented  the  hourglass  with  its  two  glass  cones 
and  the  little  hole  between  for  the  sand  to  run 
through,  and  our  fathers  and  grandfathers  know 
how  as  boys  they  used  to  watch  the  hourglass  on 
the  pulpit  of  the  old  church  and  wish  that  sand 
would  get  a  "hustle  on,"  as  you  boys  say.  But 
that  was  unsatisfactory,  for  some  one  had  to  come 
up  every  hour  and  turn  the  glass  over,  or  else  there 
had  to  be  a  lot  of  different  glasses  for  different 
lengths  of  time. 

King  Alfred  thought  he  had  solved  the  difficulty 
with  a  dozen  candles  of  different  lengths,  but  the 
trouble  was  that  sometimes  the  wind  would  blow 
out  the  candle  and  the  time  would  be  lost.  In 
China,  in  the  imperial  city  of  Pekin  there  is  a 
water  clock,  composed  of  several  tubs  each  of 
which  are  filled  from  one  above,  and  as  each  is 
filled  it  marks  a  new  hour,  and  when  the  last  is 
filled  the  day  is  complete. 

But  somebody  has  to  fill  the  tubs  every  day, 
and  has  done  so  for  over  two  thousand  years. 

At  last  men  began  to  try  wheels  to  move  the 
hands  on  the  dial  instead  of  trusting  to  the  shadow 
made  by  the  sun,  and  at  length  we  came  to  have 
the  great  tower  clock  of  Europe,  and  at  last  the 
clocks  with  springs,  and  finally  the  little  lady 
watches  that  the  girls  wear  on  their  bracelets. 
Now  if  you  were  to  choose  which  of  these  you  would 

142 


THE  LESSON  OF  THE  SUNDIAL 

prefer  to  measure  the  hours  of  your  life,  which 
would  you  take? 

I  suppose  every  one  of  you  would  say,  "Why, 
I'll  take  the  watch  of  course."  And  in  these 
hurrying  bustling  days,  when  we  must  be  on  time 
to  the  second,  and  when  men  are  counting  the 
one  hundredth  part  of  a  second,  and  worrying  be- 
cause there  is  a  variation  of  time  between  the 
observatory  at  Greenwich,  England,  and  Paris, 
France,  of  four  twenty-fifths  of  a  second,  we  should 
naturally  prefer  the  accurate  watch  to  the  clumsy 
old  sundial. 

But  do  you  know  after  all,  I  think  that  I  should 
prefer  to  have  the  hours  of  my  life  measured  by 
the  good  old  clumsy  sundial.  Why?  Because  the 
sundial  only  records  the  sunshiny  days. 

The  fashion  of  writing  mottoes  on  sundials  is 
quite  an  old  and  popular  fashion  and  on  some  of 
them  you  may  read  mottoes  like  these :  "  Amid  the 
flowers,  I  tell  the  hours",  that's  for  a  garden  sun- 
dial; "The  hours  of  justice  do  not  strike  on  the 
dials  of  this  world." 

Near  Venice  there  is  a  dial  on  which  in  Latin 
are  the  suggestive  words:  "/  measure  only  the 
serene  hours.'' 

That  is  why  I  should  choose  the  sundial.  It 
measures  only  sunny  hours.  All  the  dark  days 
go  by  unmeasured.  The  sundial  takes  no  account 
of  them.  What  a  nice  thing  to  measure  our  life 
like  the  dial ;  to  remember  only  the  happy  days, 
143 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

the  bright  days,  and  forget  to  remember  the  dark 
and  gloomy  ones.  You  see  if  this  were  true  we 
would  not  remember  the  days  we  had  the  measles, 
but  only  the  day  we  went  to  the  circus. 

We  should  forget  the  day  we  had  to  stay  at 
home  and  help  mother  and  remember  the  day 
she  put  her  hand  on  our  shoulder  and  said,  "My 
dear  little  girl  is  such  a  help  to  mother." 

Now  I  think  that  Paul  meant  us  to  be  sundials 
when  he  said  to  us  in  his  letter  to  the  Philippians, 
"Whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  .  .  .  think  on  these 
things." 

I  want  to  be  a  sundial.     Don't  you? 


144 


TWO  TO  ONE 
Text — James  i  :  19. 

My  Dear  Juniors: 

I  wonder  if  it  ever  occurred  to  you  to  sit  down  and 
think  out  the  reasons  for  our  being  put  together 
as  we  are — why  we  have  two  feet  instead  of  four 
and  why  we  have  two  ears  instead  of  one,  and  why 
we  have  two  eyes  instead  of  one  great  one  like  the 
giant  of  your  fairy  tales,  and,  more  singular  still, 
why  we  have  two  ears,  and  two  eyes,  but  only 
one  mouth. 

Now,  I  was  thinking  of  that  the  other  day,  and 
suddenly  in  my  reading  of  God's  word  I  came 
across  an  answer  to  this  puzzling  matter.  It  is 
in  James's  epistle,  the  first  chapter  and  the  nine- 
teenth verse,  *' Swift  to  hear,  slow  to  speak." 
Ah,  I  said  that  is  the  reason  for  it  all.  Two  ears 
to  one  mouth  is  in  order  that  we  may  be  swift  to 
hear,  and  slow  to  speak.  But  why  should  we  be 
swift  to  hear  and  slow  to  speak? 

Then  I  said  to  myself,  we  have  two  ears  and 
one  mouth,  because  hearing  is  more  important 
than  speaking,  two  to  one. 

Now  this  is  so  in  the  physical  world.  The 
teachers  in  the  asylums  and  schools  for  the  dumb 
will  tell  you  that  it  is  far  easier  to  make  a  child 
speak  if  only  he  can  hear,  and  that  most  of  the 

10  145 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

children  who  find  it  difficult  to  utter  words  with 
their  lips  are  they  who  never  heard  words  clearly 
with  their  ears.  So  that  in  this  case  at  least  two 
ears  are  better  than  a  dozen  mouths. 

One  day  a  teacher  in  one  of  the  public  schools 
in  Philadelphia  heard  a  noise  outside  her  school- 
room window  that  sounded  like  some  one  pounding 
on  iron  with  a  hammer  and,  looking  out,  she  saw 
a  small  boy  pounding  on  a  trolley  pole  with  a  bit 
of  iron.  She  called  to  him  to  stop  as  he  was  dis- 
turbing her  boys  in  their  study,  but  he  did  not 
stop.  For  several  days  he  kept  up  the  racket 
and  she  got  interested  and  went  down  to  speak  to 
him.  She  found  he  was  almost  deaf,  and  nearly 
dumb  and  couldn't  hear  all  the  noise  he  was  making. 
She  found  also  that  this  was  his  only  amusement. 
So,  visiting  the  parents  and  getting  permission  to 
have  his  ears  operated  upon  by  a  surgeon,  she  was 
at  last  able  to  know  that  he  could  hear  and  it  was 
not  long  after  he  became  able  to  hear  that  he  began 
to  speak  and  to  learn.  So,  here  at  least,  two  ears 
are  better  than  many  mouths.  But  it  is  always 
better  to  hear  than  to  speak — twice  as  important, 
for  we  have  two  ears  and  one  mouth.  The  Bible 
says  that  a  fool  is  "full  of  words,"  but  what  are 
senseless  words?  Some  boys  and  girls  that  chatter, 
chatter  without  saying  anything,  because  they  have 
not  listened  to  things  that  were  worth  while,  are 
like  water  being  poured  from  jugs — the  less  there 
is  in  the  jug  the  more  noise  it  makes  coming  out. 
146 


TWO  TO  ONE 

Keep  your  ears  open,  and  listen,  so  that  you  will 
have  something  to  say,  for  it  will  take  two 
good  ears  to  get  enough  into  one's  head  worth 
while  to  keep  that  one  tongue  of  ours  talking  sense, 
and  not  nonsense. 

Then  we  must  not  tell  more  than  half  of  what 
we  hear.  For,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  one  mouth  is 
half  of  two  ears.  The  great  trouble  is  we  usually 
tell  twice  as  much  as  we  hear.  But  only  about 
half  of  what  we  hear  is  true.  This  is  a  safe  rule 
for  you  boys  and  girls  to  follow  in  the  matter  of 
those  things  you  say  about  others.  When  we  hear 
something  about  a  little  friend,  we  should  do  as 
the  housewife  does  with  sour  pie-apples — peel  them, 
and  then  take  out  the  core  and  then  cut  them  in 
quarters,  and  after  all  that  add  plenty  of  sugar. 
A  missionary  in  China  says  she  saw  a  cook  in  a 
Chinese  kitchen  smearing  the  mouth  of  the  kitchen 
god  with  molasses,  in  order  to  make  him  tell  only 
sweet  things  about  the  people  in  the  house. 

Out  West  on  the  big  prairie  farms  they  use  a 
reaping  machine  that  cuts  and  binds  the  sheaves, 
then  threshes  out  the  wheat  and  finally  separates 
the  chaff  and  scatters  it  about  on  the  ground  for 
fertilizing.  But  the  trouble  is  that  among  the 
chaff  are  the  seeds  of  weeds  and  when  these  are 
scattered  about  they  sow  themselves  and  make 
no  end  of  trouble.  So  the  farmer  has  had  to  give 
up  that  machine  and  burn  the  chaff.  We  hear  a 
lot  of  unkind  and  untrue  things  that  ought  never 

117 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

to  be  scattered  about  by  that  tongue  of  ours.     We 
must  burn  them. 

So  these  are  the  lessons  that  I  learned  from  James 
about  my  two  ears  and  single  mouth:  to  listen 
twice  before  we  speak  once;  and  to  speak  out  to 
the  world,  especially  about  others,  only  half  of 
what  we  hear. 


148 


SALT 

Text — Mark  9  :  50.    "  Have  salt  in  yourselves,  and  have 
peace  one  with  another." 
Object — Some  table  salt. 

I  wonder  if  we  have  ever  been  at  a  dinner  table 
where  the  salt  was  accidentally  spilled,  when  some 
one  did  not  laugh  and  jokingly  say  to  the  spiller, 
"Throw  a  pinch  over  your  left  shoulder,"  or  "Here's 
a  quarrel,  sure."  And  yet  when  we  did  it  we  never 
dreamed  that  we  were  doing  very  much  what  the 
Master  himself  did  that  day  when  his  disciples  were 
quarreling  over  the  first  place  in  his  kingdom. 
He  did  not  say,  "Throw  salt  over  your  shoulder," 
but  he  did  say,  "Have  salt  in  yourselves,  and  be 
at  peace." 

Jesus  was  thinking  of  the  need  they  had  of 
making  a  covenant  of  peace  between  themselves 
that  would  stop  all  the  strife.  For  salt  had  such 
wonderful  preservative  powers  that  in  those  olden 
days  it  came  to  be  used  as  a  symbol  in  making 
enduring  covenants.  To  eat  of  a  man's  salt  in 
Jesus'  day  and  even  in  this  day  in  the  East,  is  to  be 
at  peace  with  that  man. 

Last  summer  at  the  Anglo-Japanese  Exhibition 
in  London  I  saw  a  most  interesting  and  amusing 
set  of  Japanese  wrestlers — great,  strong  fellows, 
with  bulging  muscles,  who  looked  for  all  the  world 

149 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

like  great  swollen  toads,  and  who  made  no  end  of 
motions  and  went  through  endless  gymnastics,  be- 
fore they  began  to  grip  one  another  for  the  throw. 

The  thing  that  interested  me  most  was  that 
attached  to  the  post  of  the  canopy  where  each 
stood  was  a  little  basket  of  salt,  and  before  they 
began  their  struggle  each  took  a  handful  of  this 
salt  and  sprinkled  it  before  him,  and  between  him 
and  the  other  fellow.  This  the  interpreter  told 
us  was  to  show  that  there  was  no  hard  feeling. 

The  Arabs  to-day  in  the  desert  say,  "There  is 
salt  between  us,"  meaning  that  there  is  between 
them  an  everlasting  covenant  of  peace. 

God's  covenant  with  Israel  was  called  by  them 
"The  covenant  of  salt,"  and  we  may  remember 
that  King  Abijam  said,  when  men  feared  that  the 
kingdom  of  his  father  Rehoboam  would  be  taken 
from  him,  "Don't  you  know  that  Jehovah  gave 
the  kingdom  to  David  by  a  covenant  of  salt?" 
— meaning  that  God's  word  was  sure. 

Jesus  says  to  us  young  people  that  we  are 
always  to  have  salt  about  us,  so  that  we  may  be  able 
to  throw  it  down  when  there  is  danger  of  a  quarrel, 
and  always  be  at  peace  one  with  another.  We 
know  how  the  quarrels  come,  don't  we?  First,  one 
says  some  nasty  thing  and  then  the  other  replies. 
James  tells  us  that  the  tongue  is  the  trouble.  Hear 
what  Paul  says,  "Let  your  speech  be  always  with 
grace,  seasoned  with  salt  that  ye  may  know  how  ye 
ought  to  answer  one  another."  (Col.  4  :  6.) 
150 


SALT 

I  am  afraid  we  do  not  carry  enough  of  that  salt 
around  with  us  and  throw  it  down  like  the  wrestlers 
and  the  Arabs  do. 

Next  time  that  Bill  comes  around  to  pick  a  quarrel 
with  you,  you  put  some  salt  on  your  tongue,  and 
throw  down  some  of  this  salt  Jesus  speaks  of,  and 
tell  him,  "There's  salt  between  us,  Bill;  you  and  I 
can't  scrap." 


151 


THE  CHANGED  CUPS 

Objects — Two  old-time  communion  goblets. 

My  Dear  Little  Churchgoers: 

I  am  so  glad  that  you  have  come  to  the  Lord's 
Supper  to-day,  and  hope  that  many  of  you  will 
stay  through  the  service.  There  is  something 
beneath  that  white  cloth  upon  the  communion 
table  that  you  all  ought  to  see,  and  when  you  have 
seen,  go  home  and  think  about  it.  For  we  are 
coming  to-day  to  celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Now,  you  know  that  on  Communion  Sunday  I 
always  tell  you  something  of  interest  about  Jesus' 
death  for  you,  so  that  some  day,  not  too  far 
away,  you  will  want  to  come  as  the  rest  of  these 
older  children  do  and  sit  at  that  table  to  celebrate 
his  dying  love. 

I  have  here  two  communion  goblets.  Do  you 
recollect  how  on  the  night  in  which  he  was  betrayed, 
Jesus  took  the  "cup"  and  filling  it  gave  it  to  his 
disciples  as  he  said,  "This  cup  is  my  cup,  but  I 
am  going  to  give  it  to  you  to  drink;  drink  ye  all 
of  it." 

You  will  remember  how  that  when  he  went  out 
into  the  dismal  garden  of  Gethsemane,  he  there  in 
the  shadows  took  another  cup  and  drank  the  con- 
tents.   You  couldn't  have  seen  that  cup,  but  it  was 

152 


THE  CHANGED  CUPS 

very  real  to  him  for  he  said,  "O  my  Father,  if  it 
be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me:  nevertheless 
not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt."  And  so  he  drank 
it  there  all  alone.  That  was  our  cup  which  he 
took  from  us.  So,  do  you  see,  he  gave  us  his  and 
he  took  ours. 

Now  what  do  you  think  was  in  these  two  cups? 

Let  us  look  first  at  the  cup  he  took  from  us  and 
drank  himself.  (Have  printed  on  slips  of  paper 
and  placed  within  this  cup  such  words  as:  Sin, 
Suffering,  Sorrow,  God-forsakenness,  Death,  and 
draw  these  out  as  you  comment  upon  them.) 

What  a  fearful  cupful  that  was  to  drink!  Oh, 
how  bitter! — more  bitter  than  any  medicine  you 
ever  took.  But  he  drained  it  to  the  dregs  for  you. 
Why?  That  you  might  be  able  to  drink  his  cup 
which  he  gave  you.  So  let  us  change  those  cups 
about  now  and  see  what  is  in  the  one  he  gave  us 
to  drink.  (Take  out  from  this  cup  slips  on  which 
are  written:  Joy,  Peace,  Forgiveness,  Love, 
Fellowship  with  God,  etc.) 

Oh,  what  a  pleasant  drink,  boys  and  girls.  This 
is  for  you.  "Drink  ye  all  of  it"  said  Jesus. 
Because  he  so  loved  us,  he  changed  the  cups. 
He  took  the  awfully  bitter  one  and  gave  us  the 
sweet.  That  is  what  the  communion  means  to 
you. 

Will  you  take  his  cup?  Will  you  let  him  take 
yours? 

Some  day  I  know  you  will  come  to  sit  down  with 
153 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

US  all  here,  and  drink  the  symbol  of  his  blood. 
But  to-day  you  can  take  the  cup  of  blessing  he 
gives  you,  and  if  you  trust  him  he  will  take  all 
the  bitterness  out  of  your  young  lives  and  leave 
only  the  sweet. 

Won't  you  love  him?     Of  course  you  will.     I 
knew  it. 


154 


CHRIST'S  SENTINEL 

Text— Matt.  26  :  40. 

Object — Any  picture  or  image  of  a  soldier  at  "attention." 

My  Dear  Soldiers  of  Jesus: 

I  am  wondering  to-day  how  many  of  you  have 
ever  been  very  lonesome.  Perhaps  some  of  you 
were  sent  out  to  uncle's  last  summer,  on  the  farm, 
or  had  to  stay  at  home  while  mother  and  father 
were  away  in  Europe.  How  solemn  it  got  about 
evening,  when  the  sun  went  down,  and  the  crickets 
chirped  and  the  katydids  sang  in  the  tree  just 
outside  your  bedroom,  and  you  wanted  mother  to 
come  in  and  kiss  you  good-night,  and  a  great  big 
lump  came  up  in  your  throat  and  wouldn't  go 
down  until  you  had  let  some  tears  come  out  of  your 
eyes,  and  you  felt  that  you  had  not  a  friend  left  in 
the  whole  great  round  world.  It  is  a  mean  feeling, 
isn't  it? 

Now,  our  master  Jesus  was  a  lonesome  man. 
He  had  only  a  very  few  faithful  friends,  and  these 
finally  left  him  on  that  awful  night  when  he  was 
struggling  with  the  thought  of  death  in  Geth- 
semane.  For  you  remember  how  he  took  Peter 
and  James  and  John  and  went  deep  into  the  shadows 
of  the  garden,  and  asked  them  to  watch  and  wait 
for  him  while  he  went  ahead  a  little  farther  and 
prayed  for  strength — Peter  and  James  and  John, 
155 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

the  faithful  three  that  he  thought  he  could  trust 
above  all  the  rest.  But  when  he  came  back  from 
his  lonely  vigil  he  found  them  fast  asleep.  And 
you  will  remember  how  he  looked  at  them  sadly, 
and  with  that  lonesome  feeling  in  his  great  loving 
heart  said,  "  Could  ye  not  watch  with  me  one  hour?''' 
Think  of  it,  young  soldiers  of  the  King.  They 
could  not  keep  sentry  for  him  even  one  short 
hour. 

That  is  the  trouble  that  the  Master  finds  with 
us  young  soldiers,  we  cannot  keep  watch  with 
him  one  hour.  We  are  so  impatient  and  we  get 
so  tired  watching  with  Jesus. 

What  does  watching  with  him   mean  to-day? 

He  does  not  ask  us  to  go  and  sit  in  a  garden 
and  wait  for  him.  I  think  it  means  this — playing 
sentinel  over  the  duties  he  gives  us. 

First. — Attending  the  church  service  each  Sun- 
day morning,  is  watching  with  him  just  one  hour, 
for  that  is  the  length  of  the  service.  I  know  how 
hard  it  is  to  sit  still  for  an  hour,  no  matter  how 
interesting  the  performance  or  the  service.  I 
remember  how  they  used  to  offer  me  ten  cents  if  I 
would  sit  still  five  minutes  when  I  was  a  boy. 
And  I  am  going  to  let  you  into  my  secret  and  tell 
you  that  I  didn't  get  that  ten  cents. 

But  when  you  know  that  it  pleases  the  Master 
to  have  you  here  in  his  house  keeping  watch  with 
him,  that  makes  it  easier. 

Second. — ^Sitting  for  another  hour  on  Sunday 
156 


CHRIST'S  SENTINEL 

afternoon   in   the  Sunday   school   studying   that 

great  bock  which  we  call  "The  Word  of  God," 

is   again   playing   sentinel    for    the    Master,     for 

that  book  is  the  guidebook,    full   of   instructions 

for  the  Christian  soldier,  and  he  will  never  be  a 

good  soldier  until  he  knows  what  the  rules  of  the 

service  are. 

Third. — Kneeling    down    to    pray    each    night 

and  morning  is  like  keeping  watch  with  Jesus  in 

the  garden.     The  kind  of  watches  Jesus  kept  were 

just  like  that.     He  went  out  night  after  night 

alone  either  on  the  mountain  or  in  the  garden  to 

pray.    The  old  hymn  says: 

*'  Put  on  the  gospel  armor 
And  watching  unto  prayer." 

It's  the  "watching  unto  prayer"  that  we 
young  Christians  need,  and  some  can't  even  watch 
five  minutes  in  each  day. 

Fourth. — Keeping  the  Sabbath  day  is  watch- 
ing with  Christ,  taking  care  that  that  one  day 
in  the  seven  should  be  reserved  for  him,  guarding 
it  as  carefully  as  the  sentinel  guards  the  sleeping 
hours  of  his  master,  letting  no  person  or  thing 
come  in  to  mar  the  holiness  of  that  day  of  rest 
which  Jesus  left  us. 

Fifth. — We  know  that  the  sentinel  gives  himself 
up  to  his  duty  entirely  during  the  time  that  he  is 
watching.  And  so  ought  we  to  give  ourselves  up 
to  Christ,  standing  at  attention,  giving  heed  to 
him  as  long  as  we  are  on  duty.     Now  it  takes  love 

157 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

and  devotion  to  watch  faithfully.  And  because 
Jesus  knew  that,  he  asked  only  those  whom  he 
thought  loved  him  to  do  this. 

When  I  was  in  Edinburgh,  in  Scotland,  this 
summer  I  saw  the  statue  of  a  little  terrier  dog  on 
the  top  of  a  drinking  fountain  for  animals.  He 
was  called  "Greyfriars  Bobby,"  and  he  was  a 
sentinel  worth  while.  When  he  was  a  young  dog 
he  used  to  come  to  town  with  his  master,  a  farmer 
who  sold  his  produce  in  the  Grassmarket  near  the 
old  Greyfriars  Church,  and  when  his  master  went 
to  dinner  Bobby  would  go  along  and  get  his  share 
at  the  little  tavern  near  by.  But  one  sad  day  that 
master  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  the 
Greyfriars  Church.  Poor  Bobby  was  inconsolable. 
He  followed  the  coffin  of  his  master  to  the  cemetery 
and  when  they  laid  it  away  in  the  grave,  Bobby 
lay  down  on  top  of  that  grave  and  refused  to  move. 
When  it  came  dinner  time  and  the  great  factory 
whistles  told  it  was  noon,  Bobby  got  up  as  usual 
and  went  for  his  dinner,  which  they  gladly  gave 
him  and  then  went  back  and  lay  down  to  watch 
on  his  master's  grave.  He  never  left  it  except 
during  the  noon  hour.  For  twelve  years  poor 
Bobby  kept  his  watch  over  his  master,  and  when  he 
died  they  buried  him  in  that  master's  grave. 

Boys  and  girls,  if  a  little  terrier  dog  could  be  so 
faithful  to  his  dead  master,  how  faithful  do  you 
think  we  ought  to  be  to  our  living  and  risen  Master 
when  he  asks  us  to  watch  with  him  one  hour? 
158 


WHAT  JESUS  SEES   IN  US 

Text— Matt.  6:28,  29. 

Object — Some  pressed  flowers  from  Palestine;  or  any  field 
flower. 


My  Dear  Juniors: 

I  have  in  my  hand  this  morning  as  our  object 
lesson  one  of  the  many  beautiful  varieties  of 
flowers  that  grow  in  the  land  of  Palestine,  which 
in  the  early  spring,  when  its  hills  and  plains  are 
covered  with  a  carpet  of  beautiful  colors,  looks 
like  a  great  Persian  rug,  and  causes  the  travelers 
to  go  into  ecstacies  of  delight. 

Perhaps  no  land  in  the  world  has  a  greater 
variety  of  flowers  than  the  land  where  Jesus 
lived,  and  this  little  flower  is  but  one  of  the  three 
thousand  varieties  of  gorgeously  colored  beauties 
that  Jesus  saw  each  morning  as  he  wandered 
about  in  the  spring  time  in  his  native  land.  Per- 
haps this  little  flower  called  the  "anemone,"  grew 
on  the  very  spot  where  Jesus*  feet  had  trod,  or  per- 
haps blossomed  on  that  hillside  where  he  made  the 
five  thousand  sit  down  when  he  fed  them  with 
loaves  and  fishes. 

"  We  grew  upon  the  very  hills 
Where  Jesus  used  to  stand, 
W^e  blossomed  on  the  lonely  paths 
Of  God's  once  holy  land." 

159 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

Nothing  is  more  beautiful  to  the  eye  than  the 
great  carpets  of  anemones  all  scarlet  in  color  like 
the  one  we  have  to-day,  or  the  great  fields  of 
poppies,  and  clovers,  and  yellow  crocuses,  and 
blue  irises  and  red  and  yellow  tulips. 

Jesus  loved  the  flowers,  as  he  loved  all  that 
God  had  made,  and  in  our  text  he  uses  them  as  an 
object  lesson  to  his  disciples  on  the  necessity  of 
simply  doing  our  part  and  glorifying  God  by  grow- 
ing, but  the  thing  about  them  that  first  attracted 
him  was  their  beauty — "they  toil  not,  neither  do 
they  spin:  and  yet  I  say  unto  you.  That  even 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one 
of  these." 

Now  flowers  are  mentioned  many  times  in  the 
Bible,  but  the  singular  thing  is  that  they  are  always 
spoken  of  as  a  symbol  of  the  frailty  and  brief 
measure  of  the  life  of  men. 

David  loved  flowers,  but  the  thing  that  impressed 
him  was  the  thing  he  wrote  about  them  in  the 
Psalms,  "For  the  wind  passeth  over  it,  and  it  is 
gone;  and  the  place  thereof  shall  know  it  no  more." 

Job  saw  on  the  flowers  a  picture  of  his  own  short 
life  when  he  said:  "Man  that  is  born  of  woman  is 
of  few  days,  and  full  of  trouble.  He  cometh  forth 
like  a  flower,  and  is  cut  down." 

Isaiah   said,  "The  grass  withereth,   the  flower 

fadeth,"  and  when  we  come  to  the  New  Testament 

we  find  that  they  did  not  treat  the  flowers  any 

better.    James  tells  us  that  the  riches  of  the  rich 

160 


W^AT  JESUS  SEES  IN  US 

man  are  like  the  flowers;  it  shall  soon  pass  away. 
And  Peter  says,  "For  all  flesh  is  as  grass  .  .  .  the 
grass  withereth,  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth 
away." 

But  Jesus  saw  differently.  He  did  not  notice 
the  frailty  so  much  as  he  looked  at  the  beauty  of 
the  flowers,  and  the  possibilities  they  had  in  them. 
He  called  attention  to  their  great  beauty,  saying 
that  Solomon,  the  great  king,  in  all  his  glory  was 
not  arrayed  like  one  of  these,  and  he  told  of  their 
power  to  grow. 

Now  as  I  look  about  me  and  see  all  you  boys 
and  girls,  I  am  reminded  of  a  flower  garden,  and 
how  differently  men  think  of  you  from  the  way 
that  Jesus  thinks  of  you.  You  boys  and  girls 
are  the  flowers  of  humanity.  We  "grown-ups" 
are  apt  to  look  at  your  weakness  and  frailty,  but 
Jesus  is  looking  at  your  beauty  and  possibility. 

We  are  apt  to  think  what  a  weak  and  frail 
thing  a  little  child  is,  and  Jesus  is  always  thinking 
what  a  beautiful  and  wonderful  thing  a  child  is. 

But  Jesus  had  a  habit  of  looking  at  the  beautiful 
side  of  everything.  He  never  would  have  seen 
the  worm  hole  in  the  autumn  leaf;  he  would  have 
seen  only  the  glory  of  its  colors.  There  is  a  story 
told  of  Jesus  that  one  day  as  he  and  his  disciples 
passed  by  a  dead  dog  at  the  road  side  the  disciples 
spoke  slightingly  of  it,  but  Jesus  said,  "Yes,  but 
see  what  beautiful  teeth  he  has." 

I  think  if  Jesus  should  come  in  bodily  form  into 

11  161 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

our  midst  to-day,  and  look  about  among  you  boys 
and  girls  he  would  say,  not  what  men  might  say, 
"What  frail  things  children  are,'*  but,  "What 
beautiful  things  children  are,  and  what  wonderful 
possibilities  they  have."  And  if  we  should  ask 
him  for  a  picture  of  true  beauty,  he  would  pick 
up  one  of  these  little  ones  in  his  tender  arms  as  of 
old  and  say,  "This  is  your  picture." 

Sometimes  I  fear  mother  or  father  will  get  angry 
with  you  and  call  you  "bad,"  and  "good-for- 
nothing,"  or  men  may  push  you  carelessly  aside 
because  you  seem  so  helpless  and  frail.  But  Jesus 
always  thinks  you  beautiful,  and  besides  he  sees 
that  you  have  a  wonderful  chance  for  the  future. 
He  knows  you  can  grow  like  the  lilies.  As  the 
acorn  contains  the  mighty  oak  tree,  so  Jesus  knows 
you  boys  and  girls  each  hold  within  you  a  great 
and  noble  life. 

Now  if  Jesus  is  looking  at  us  for  beauty,  let  us 
never  disappoint  him.  And  if  he  is  expecting  that 
we  shall  grow  gradually  and  naturally  like  the 
lily  into  great  beauty,  let  us  not  fail  him. 


162 


THE  EMPTY  SEATS 

Text— I  Sam.  20  :  i8. 

Objects — Some  small  doll  chairs. 

My  Dear  Young  Churchgoers: 

I  have  brought  with  me  to-day  the  pastor's 
bugbears.  No,  they  are  not  behind  the  pulpit 
they  are  before  you  here.  And  though  they  do 
not  growl  and  look  furry,  they  do  go  on  all  fours. 
They  do  not  bite,  but  they  have  the  power  of  in- 
flicting a  sorry  wound.  But  I  must  not  keep  you 
youngsters  guessing  longer.  A  bugbear  is  a 
terrible  bear,  for  the  old  English  word  bug  means 
fear,  and  a  bugbear  is  a  thing  that  in  the  bad  old 
days  they  used  to  scare  little  toddlers  with  when 
they  would  not  go  to  bed.  A  bugbear  means  a 
monstrous  dread.  And  do  you  know  that  it  is 
not  only  little  boys  and  girls  that  have  such  bug- 
bears that  creep  out  of  the  shadows  at  bedtime 
and  meet  one  on  the  dark  stairway  when  the  lamp 
is  turned  down  dim,  but  that  pastors  of  churches 
have  bugbears?  These  are  some  of  them  which  I 
have  before  me — yes,  these  little  chairs.  For  they 
often  wound  me  to  the  heart.  And  the  thing  that 
makes  them  a  special  terror  to  pastors  is  that 
they  are  empty. 

Now  look  at  the  text  a  moment — "Thou  shalt 
be  missed,  because  thy  seat  will  be  empty." 
David  was  absent  from  the  king's  table  and  Jona- 
163 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

than  told  him  that  he  would  be  missed  because  his 
seat  at  the  king's  table  would  be  empty.  Boys 
and  girls,  when  you  are  absent  from  the  service 
of  God's  house  you  will  always  be  missed  because 
your  seat  will  be  empty. 

Now,  you  say,  *'  If  that  is  all  for  which  I  am 
missed,  simply  to  fill  a  seat,  then  I  had  better  stay 
away."  But  there  are  other  things  for  which  we 
miss  you  when  that  chair  of  yours  is  empty.  We 
miss  the  bright  face  that  adds  so  much  to  the  joy 
of  God's  house.  We  miss  the  sweet  young  voice 
that  adds  so  much  to  the  praises  of  the  sanctuary. 
But  you  are  chiefly  conspicuous  because  that  seat 
where  you  belong  is  lonesome  and  sad  and  makes 
us  all  feel  lonesome  and  sad. 

Remember  that  a  seat  belongs  to  each  member 
of  this  Junior  Congregation  and  if  you  are  not 
there  to  fill  it,  your  seat  at  least  will  be  empty. 
Do  you  realize  what  a  sadness  is  in  the  home  life 
wherever  there  is  a  vacant  chair?  It  may  be 
grandfather's  chair  at  the  head  of  the  table  that  is 
vacant,  or  it  may  be  the  baby's  little  high-chair  at 
the  other  end,  but  the  vacant  chair  makes  a  heart 
wound  in  mother's  or  father's  heart.  And  just  so 
the  vacant  chair  in  God's  house  wounds  not  only 
the  heart  of  the  pastor,  but  the  great  loving  heart 
of  God  who  seeks  those  who  will  worship  him. 
Can't  you  realize  how  grieved  our  Saviour  would 
be  should  he  come  into  this  room  and  find  your  seat 
empty? 

164 


THE  EMPTY  SEATS 

Then  remember  that  you  will  be  missed  as  an 
inspiration  to  your  pastor,  for  he  is  woefully 
afraid  of  these  innocent  looking  bugbears  of  empty 
chairs.  When  he  gets  up  to  speak  and  looks 
into  the  faces  of  his  dear  young  churchgoers,  he  feels 
a  great  throbbing  joy  and  it  helps  his  message  for 
that  day,  but  when  he  looks  into  the  faces  of 
these  bugbears,  he  is  woefully  afraid,  and  he 
loses  all  courage  and  his  sermon  is  often  spoiled. 

You  will  be  missed  as  an  inspiration  and 
example  to  the  members  of  the  Senior  Congrega- 
tion, for  when  they  see  you  in  your  places  they 
will  feel  the  power  of  the  example  you  have  set. 

Now  why  do  we  want  you  here  as  boys  and  girls? 

Some  time  ago  I  saw  a  great  rosy  red  apple 
growing  in  a  bottle  whose  neck  was  so  small  that 
one  could  just  get  the  thumb  within  it. 

What  was  the  secret?  Why,  the  farmer  had 
taken  the  bottle  and  tied  it  to  the  bough  in  the 
early  spring  and  had  inserted  the  blossom  within 
the  glass  prison,  and  as  the  apple  grew  it  grew  within 
the  vial  until  it  filled  it.  It  is  very  difficult  to  get 
the  "grown-ups"  to  come  Into  God's  house.  But  it 
is  so  much  easier  to  grow  up  in  his  sanctuary  when, 
like  Samuel,  you  begin  as  a  little  child. 


165 


WHO'S  AFRAID? 

Text — Ps.  27  :  I.    "The  Lord  is  my  light  and  my  salva- 
tion; whom  shall  I  fear?" 
Object — A  heathen  charm  or  fetish. 

I  wonder  if  there  is  a  member  of  this  Junior 
Congregation  here  who  ever  heard  this  little  poem: 

*'  Once  there  was  a  little  boy 
Who  wouldn't  say  his  prayers, 
And  one  night  when  he  went  to  bed 
Away  up  stairs, 
His  papa  heard  him  holler, 
And  his  mama  heard  him  bawl, 
And  when  they  turned  the  covers  down, 
He  wasn't  there  at  all. 

And  all  they  ever  found  of  him 
Was  his  little  roundabout; 
And  the  goberlins  '11  git  yer. 
If  yer  don't  watch  out." 

When  you  were  little  tots,  and  had  to  be  put 
to  bed  by  your  nurse,  did  she  ever  scare  the  life  out 
of  you  by  telling  you  a  lot  of  horrid  lies  about  some 
sort  of  "Bugaboo"  that  was  hiding  in  the  closet 
or  behind  the  shadow  of  the  wardrobe,  or  under 
the  bed,  that  would  *' get  you"  if  you  did  not  mind 
and  go  to  sleep  right  away.  And  you  didn't  believe 
it  at  all,  though  somehow  you  were  just  as  glad  she 
left  the  light  burning  when  she  went  downstairs. 
But  suppose  you  had  believed  it!  Suppose  you 
really  and  truly  imagined  that  the  "goberlins" 
166 


WHO'S  AFRAID? 

would  get  you  if  you  did  not  look  out,  and  that 
there  was  a  real  "Bugaboo"  in  the  closet  that 
would  do  terrible  things  to  little  boys  and  girls! 
Life  would  not  be  worth  living  to  be  in  such 
constant  fear.  And  yet,  boys  and  girls,  there  are 
millions  of  poor  little  tots  all  over  this  great  big 
world  that  do  believe  it. 

Suppose  whenever  you  wanted  to  go  in  swimming, 
you  had  to  tie  a  wisp  of  grass  about  your  wrist 
so  that  the  river  spirits  would  not  catch  you  and 
duck  you  under  for  so  long  that  you  never  could 
get  your  breath  again. 

Suppose  you  couldn't  go  out  after  sunset  for  fear 
the  evil  spirits  of  the  woods,  that  only  come  out 
at  night,  would  run  off  with  you  and  keep  you 
prisoner  for  life  in  the  forests. 

Suppose  father  had  to  have  the  trouble  and 
expense  of  moving  your  house  every  little  while 
because  the  evil  spirits  came  around  and  claimed 
the  land,  and  made  such  a  fuss  that  you  had  to 
move  on. 

Suppose  some  bright  morning  you  should  start 
out  for  school  with  your  books  and  your  luncheon, 
and  an  evil  spirit  should  get  right  in  the  way,  and 
you  had  at  once  to  turn  about  and  retrace  your 
steps  toward  home.  Possibly  you  might  like 
that  as  it  would  seem  like  a  holiday.  But  you 
would  have  to  go  to  bed  at  once  on  reaching  home, 
stay  there  for  several  hours,  and  then  start  out  all 
over  again. 

167 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

Suppose  you  were  sick,  and  getting  better,  and 
some  one  came  into  the  home  and  said,  "How  is 
WiUie  to-day?"  Mother  might  be  glad  her  boy 
was  recovering,  but  she  must  be  careful  not  to  say 
so;  because  if  she  did  the  spirits  might  think  she 
was  rejoicing  over  them;  for  you  must  know  it  is 
the  spirits  that  make  people  sick  in  heathen  lands. 
So  she  would  say  to  the  neighbor,  "Thank  you 
very  much  for  asking,  but  Willie  is — more  so  and 
sor 

Suppose  your  mother  covered  your  face  with 
mud,  girls,  so  that  the  evil  spirit  would  not  want 
such  a  dirty,  homely  girl  as  you  would  seem  with 
the  mud  upon  you,  and  so  would  leave  you  to  your 
mother  instead  of  stealing  you. 

This  is  the  condition  of  millions  of  little  boys 
and  girls  in  the  heathen  lands. 

I  have  here  this  morning  a  "fetish, "  as  it  is  called, 
used  in  Korea  to  drive  away  evil  spirits.  Miss 
Doriss,  our  missionary  at  Fusan,  found  it  hanging 
on  a  tree  and  sent  it  to  me.  It  is  just  a  piece  of 
colored  rag  that  means  little  to  us,  but  to  them 
it  means  protection  from  the  evil  spirits  whom 
they  fear  so  greatly. 

If  you  should  hang  this  on  your  front  gate,  so 
they  tell  us,  you  would  be  safe;  for  spirits,  in 
Korea  at  least,  cannot  climb  a  fence. 

Now  if  all  this  were  true  of  you,  and  you  believed 
that  the  goblins  and  all  kinds  of  evil  spirits  might 
make  you  much  trouble  and  keep  you  in  constant 

168 


WHO'S  AFRAID? 

fear,  you  would  want  some  one  to  come  and  relieve 
you.  That  night  when  you  saw  that  bear  creeping 
out  from  under  the  couch  across  the  room,  you  were 
glad  to  have  mother  come  up  and  assure  you  that 
it  was  nothing  but  the  rug,  and  turn  up  the  gas  to 
show  you.  And  these  poor  little  boys  and  girls 
are  so  glad  when  some  one  goes  to  Korea  and  turns 
up  the  gas  for  them  and  shows  them  the  light. 

Every  one  of  us  to-day  in  the  Christian  land 
can  say  if  we  will,  *'The  Lord  is  my  light  and  my 
salvation;  whom  shall  I  fear?"  But  the  boys  and 
girls  of  Korea  do  not  yet  know  that. 

Will  you  go  and  tell  them  that  there  are  no  such 
things  as  these  evil  spirits,  but  that  the  only  spirit 
we  have  to  do  with  is  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God 
who  loves  us?  I  wonder  if  any  of  us  will  go  and 
tell  these  little  ones  that  "God  is  their  light  and 
salvation." 

Many  boys  and  girls  have  decided  on  their  life 
work  when  they  were  children.  James  Chalmers,  the 
great  missionary  to  the  South  Seas,  settled  the 
question  as  a  boy  of  twelve  in  a  Scotch  Sunday 
school.  Mr.  Mackie,  the  superintendent,  read 
from  a  letter  of  one  of  the  missionaries  in  the  South 
Seas  and  then  he  leaned  down  and  said,  "  I  wonder 
if  there  is  a  boy  here  this  afternoon  that  will 
become  a  missionary,"  and  little  Jimmie  Chalmers 
said,  "I  will." 

One  day  Bishop  Coleridge  Patteson  was  playing 
about  his  home,  when  good  Bishop  Selwyn  the 
169 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

missionary  put  his  hand  on  the  boy's  head  and 
said  to  his  mother.  "Won't  you  give  me  Coley, 
for  the  South  Seas?"  And  "Coley"  never  forgot, 
and  went  to  the  South  Seas. 

So,  my  Juniors,  it  may  be  that  even  to-day  some 
one  of  you  will  make  up  your  minds  to  go  out  some 
day  and  tell  those  other  Juniors  across  the  seas 
that  as  "The  Lord  is  their  light  and  salvation," 
they  need  not  be  afraid.    Will  you? 


170 


UNAPPRECIATED  CHRISTMAS  GIFTS 

Text — Luke  6  :  35.     "  Do  good,  .  .  .  hoping  for  nothing 
again." 
Object — An  umbrella. 

My  Dear  Christmas  Shoppers: 

Do  you  think  that  a  queer  title  by  which  to 
call  you?  But  you  are.  I  have  seen  many  of  you 
shopping  with  mother  in  the  city  this  week  getting 
ready  for  that  happy  moment  when  you  could 
play  Santa  to  father  or  mother,  or  brother  and 
sister.  No,  I  am  not  going  out  in  the  rain,  and 
I  really  do  not  need  this  umbrella  in  the  pulpit  for 
they  say  that  it  is  always  dry  in  a  pulpit.  But 
that  is  not  true,  is  it? 

I  brought  this  umbrella  to  suggest  to  you  a 
story.  An  uncle  of  mine,  when  he  was  a  little 
fellow  like  you,  was  given  an  umbrella  for  Christmas 
and  in  the  early  dawn  by  the  dim  light  of  a  winter's 
morning,  he  was  seen  coming  down  the  stairs  to 
his  mother's  room  rubbing  his  eyes  with  one  tiny 
hand  and  lugging  the  umbrella  with  the  other,  and 
saying  with  great  disgust  as  he  came,  "Who  ga* 
me  this  amberellar?" 

There  is  a  thought  comes  to  me  just  now  that 
there  may  be  many  of  the  gifts  of  Christmas  that 
like  this  "amberellar  "  will  go  unappreciated.  Some 
171 


WHAT  I  TELL  MY  JUNIOR  CONGREGATION 

of  them  will  not  be  cared  for  because  of  some  fault 
in  the  spirit  of  the  giver. 

First,  because  they  will  be  given  without  love. 
There  are  sure  to  be  misfits  when  we  leave  out  love 
in  the  making  of  the  gift.  When  you  go  to  the 
post  office  to  mail  your  gift  at  Christmas  time, 
you  carefully  weigh  the  package  to  find  the  cost. 
I  wonder  if  you  weigh  the  package  to  see  how  much 
real  love  is  in  it.  Some  time  ago  in  a  Sunday- 
school  convention  a  little  German  got  up  and  said, 
"Vat  ve  vant  in  dis  gonvention  is  more  of  dat 
leetle  vord  of  tree  letters  1-u-v."  And  if  that 
doesn't  spell  love  what  does?  Yes,  we  need  love  to 
make  the  gift  appreciated.  Cyrus  the  Great  gave 
to  his  courtier  Artabazus  a  golden  cup,  but  to  his 
favorite  Chrysanthis  a  kiss,  and  Artabazus  com- 
plained that  the  kiss  was  worth  more  than  the  cup. 

*'  Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share, 
For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare." 

Again,  these  gifts  are  so  often  given  in  the 
spirit  of  exchange.  How  many  times  do  you  say, 
"She  gave  me  only  a  box  of  candy  last  year,  and 
I'm  not  going  to  spend  much  on  her  this  year." 
Some  one  says  we  cut  up  our  Christmas  trees  and 
make  bargain  counters  of  them. 

"Do  good,"  says  Jesus,  "hoping  for  nothing 
again." 

These  Christmas  gifts  are  not  valued  sometimes 
because  there  is  a  wrong  spirit  in  the  heart  of  the 
172 


UNAPPRECIATED  CHRISTMAS  GIFTS 

receiver,  and  that  wrong  spirit  shows  itself  when  we 
think  more  of  the  gift  than  we  do  of  the  giver.  The 
boy  who  did  not  like  the ' '  amberellar, "  as  he  called  it, 
had  in  mind  the  gift  he  wanted  more  than  the  love 
of  the  father  who  gave  it. 

And  this  wrong  spirit  makes  us  expect  too  much. 
To  have  your  heart  too  greatly  set  on  any  earthly 
desire  is  to  be  disappointed.  We  are  so  set  on 
getting  some  one  thing  that  we  forget  to  be  grateful 
for  the  thing  we  do  get.  Oh,  if  we  could  get  the 
spirit  of  little  Piccola  across  the  seas.  Her  family 
was  very  poor,  so  she  set  out  her  little  shoe,  hardly 
daring  to  expect  the  good  Santa  Claus  to  come  her 
way.  But  when  she  went  to  it  eagerly  in  the 
morning,  there  in  the  shoe  sat  a  tiny  birdie,  cold  and 
wet  and  hungry.  Tenderly  she  took  the  little 
fledgling  in  and  nourished  it,  crying  out  with  joy, 
"How  good  Piccola  must  have  been  for  God  to 
have  given  her  this." 

And  then  that  bad  spirit  makes  us  more  concerned 
with  receiving  than  giving.  When  we  think  more 
of  getting  than  giving,  we  shall  ever  be  unthankful, 
and  many  a  good  gift  will  go  unthanked  by  us, 
boys  and  girls.  Remember  the  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  how  he  said,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than 
to  receive."  I  trust  that  no  good  gifts  of  God  at 
this  Christmas  tide  will  go  unliked  by  you  because 
of  this  evil  spirit  of  discontent  and  want  of  love 
both  in  giver  and  receiver. 


173 


Date  Due 


«^^[S*^^'"^ 


0C5fe 


